First of all: welcome to the forum.

ETS and it's forum is primairly a gear-discussion and evaluation site/forum. Primitive survival-skills are of course very important and I agree with you that knowledge is at least as important than gear.

However we also discuss emergency preparedness: How can a person survive a Emergency/Survival situation, urban or wilderness. Unfortunately most people aren't very well prepared for those things, eather unknowing or unwilling. They don't have the knowlege to keep them alive with just a knife and rope as you apperantly can. That's why survival kits/BOB's contain more equipment: to make it easier for those people to survive. It sort of compensates for the lack of knowlege.

But (I hear you think) What about those skilled people that also carry a lot of ''luxury-gear''.
Most of us have a lot of experience on survival: They tested a lot and know what works and what doesn't. They choose The higher-quality-gear and want to have a few extra's with them. For example: If your making a shelter, it sometimes is a real pain to make it waterproof. A tarp is much quicker and easier, so we take it along. If we have to, we can improvise, but using a tarp is quicker and easier so it conserves energy.

And most of us are really addicted to gear. (that would be.... me <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> )