Love the gear (or listening to it) as much or more than the music? Sacrilege!

Let's talk about this marvelous kitchen-top radio! I WANT one of these!
It be a lot more 'green' than my all class A gear, not so?
Save me some more electricity!
Dishes I do myself, no problem.
Am I wrong to decline any ideas suggesting a BOSE?
Been there of sorts years back and it was 'deeply disappointing'... 
So, if the sound matches my system, is at its very best at present, I'd surely still let it go - so long that kitchen radio looks a bit sexy, at least 😌.
Does that still make me 100/0 then, because no like no ugly looking kitchen radio...? 🤔 

Hm, I was years back often trailing behind a charming 'fiend' (no spelling error) who practically always when he went into shops or attending system audition only to share afterwards how crap everything sounded and was.
He never had the money at all, ever, to even consider buying even to least of equipment on offer. 
So, that way he was in the clear as all was sheit in his opinion. 
In his defence he played pretty good on a concert piano, which when he also auditioned, where just so, so as well. Never good enough, not any, to his expert assessments. 
I think sales men must have seriously hated the guy. Charming as he was in their face. 
He himself had really crappy looking gear but to him it was better than anything else on offer. 
I think he was a music lover - alsa a sightly psychopathic one.
I survived this acquaintance, including my 'crappy' ML system. Though he'd messed up my X350.5's bias settings and dc offset, seriously, and only much, much later did this bad deed transpire. 
After a most laborious and *very* time consuming  correction, my system didn't only still look nice - it also played more musical than ever. 
The moral of the story?
Be very mindful of apparent experts who you invite to advise and trust, to fiddle with your gear! 😎🙄

"Form follows function" comes to mind.

Looking at 'ugly' gear does not help really to enjoy music, - in my estimate.
I'd find it as distracting as an ugly frame on a beautiful picture. 

As another example, beautiful crafted e.g. wind surfing gear, in my experience, always worked better (for me) than ugly gear.
As a rule, what looks good, works well. 👍 

Ugly = low quality, essentially... no? 
(Must read 'Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance' again.) 

However... "De gustibus non disputandum est" 😅 

So... there seems always this subjective/romantic element involved.

Some say e.g. 'Boulder' (and Levinson?) gear is sounding cold (soulless?) - yet in my estimate it is exquisitly crafted...
Actually once had the opportunity to visit the Boulder factory and see the care and dedication involved - yet certainly very high tech compared to a point-to-point manual soldering process of some highly priced e.g. Japanese equipment. 

... will 'ugly' music*) sound better to ones ears, coming from 'beautiful' gear?!? 

*) I'm thinking here of e.g. Bela Bartok's Violin and Piano oeuvres... or some way out and totally dissonant 'free Jazz'...

Not even the most amazing gear would help me to find its -quality-, to suffer it for more than a short while. Really. 

So your doctorant friend can be understood perhaps, appeciating rather a frame than the picture, or simply commenting on its absents on some others? 

Personally, I just don't suffer 'ugly' easily, though age, by necessity, makes one more tolerant, methinks...