Having gear is important, but so is knowledge, (physical) training, mental toughness, & advanced planning/ good information. Balance.

Agreed. You can have all the gear you want but if you don't know how to use it and don't have common sense to go along with that knowledge, you're going to be pooched if TSHTF.

Know more, carry less, but be prepared with the kit, it is more comfortable. Always practice, and try to learn new ways to overcome problems. Practice many ways to do everything, like purify water, build shelter, start fires, etc. When it happens, you may not have everything you want to have, regardless of how prepared you are or how well equipped your vehicle or house is. You may have to improvise with what you can find. Use every opportunity to learn a new technique or practice old ones. Teaching is a great way to enhance your own skills (if you have someone who will sit through it).

I hear wisdom and experience in the words written in this thread.

Knowing what you can do without, and what you can do with what you have is a big plus. Improvisation and not having "one trick ponies" can cut your weight/items/space needed.

This thread reminds me of the opposite state of affairs in a SAR operation conducted some years ago in Arizona. We were called out for an overdue hiker on Mt. Lemmon. It was a dark and stormy night, with heavy mist dampening everything down.

We took the trail on which our victim was thought to be and in due course came upon the gentleman, sitting immobile and slipping into the early stages of hypothermia...next to a very large and bulky pack, weighing around fifty pounds.

"Howdy! What would you say to us starting a fire?" said we. We, too, were a little cool and would appreciate some heat.

"Can't be done - the woods are too wet" replied our guy.

It so happens that we have a couple of techniques that guarantee a fire in just about every situation short of a roaring blizzard - #1: light a can of jellied alcohol and pile the tinder around it; #2 do the same thing around a lit carbide lantern. Suffice it to say that we soon had a cheery campfire and were roasting marshmallows, etc, getting ready to march back up the trail about three miles to civilization..

The trip was enlivened by our victim's attempt to shoot our a yard light along the trail as we approached the road. He did have a pistol in his pack and at least he did some concept of what it could do. Nothing else in his pack was evidently of any particular use.

It turned out he was attempting to locate a "bamboo bomber" that allegedly had crashed on Mt. Lemmon, carrying a cargo of gold, of course, during World War II. Pure, absolute fantasy.....

If you don't know how to use it, just leave it at home and save your aching back....

They say "A fool with a tool is still a fool.".
Gear without the skills to use it may be just dead weight. In some cases the gear may even injure you severely (one false move with an axe may cost you a limb).
I would rate skills, knowledge, information and good physical shape as more important than gear. After all information and planning could well avoid the emergency. Skills and knowledge weigh nothing and can be taken everywhere.
If you can acquire a new skill, do it. If you can acquire a new piece of gear, think twice whether you really need it (unless it´s a new toy ;)).

Fitness is a tough one...takes a time commitment

Yes, but it pays back tremendously, even if you don't have to outrun your friend to keep from getting et.

I admit I'm a gear junkie. But yeah, none of that stuff is worth a hoot if you don't know how to use it, and you're not physically fit enough.