"You spent how much on that cartridge?"

Yeah, it doesn't matter weather you listen to 100 or 10000 records, you want the best system you can have.

As for how much you spend on cartridge, it is a separate audiophile subject. If your funds are virtually unlimited, get the one that sounds best to you. If not, then it becomes complicated.

Agree.   I purged many LPs back in the day , but I kept a decent amount.   Enough to justify a new table recently.

I had a 12 year or so hiatus from vinyl.   I sold my player but fortunately kept a few hundred records.    Never knew how good my existing records could sound. Definitely not a waste of money.  Especially since I often buy used LPs around  10 bucks or under.   

This is a non-issue. No one needs to know what you own or want or can afford. If an individual is so insecure as to require someone else to say how much he or she should spend in proportion to some other expenditure, well, that is unfortunate.