I think there are a couple of different reasons why people mostly talk about gear and not techniques. The simplest answer is, gear is just more fun to talk about, and people want to read about things that interest them. I'm a self admitted gear freak, I love looking at, playing with, and reading about new gear. I love to surf the internet for cool new gear, but I don't really surf too much on survival techniques, mainly because it's the same old information. Honestly, how often to survival techniques change? You can only read about making fires with bow drills or lean-to shelter so many times, it's been done for hundreds of years with almost no changes, so that's probably why you don't see a new topic on it every week. Technique is something that you just need to practice on your own time and unless it's something new that hasn't been discussed before, probably woulnd't make interesting reading. For example, I've tried most all the firestarting techniques, and some of the shelter building ones and whatnot. Almost all the information had been covered here before, so I didn't feel the need to write up the same experiences that everyone had. It's just not that interesting for anyone else. And when I read about someone else doing it, I'll skim through the post, but most of the time if there's nothing new, I won't feel the need to comment on it either. So even though technique is extremely important, just like toilet paper, it doesn't make for a very interesting discussion.

The other reason there isn't too much discussion about techniques is becaues how to you define what is essential survival knowledge? What techniques are you talking about? As other people mentioned, there aren't many common techiques that would apply to everyone on this board, it depends a lot on your location and what you consider important for survival. Almost everybody associates survival with being stranded in a "perfect" forest, with plenty of wood around to build a fire and shelter, near a stream where they could catch fish, and small animals running about just waiting to be trapped. But in my situation (which could be unique, or very common), a lot of these "survival" techniques, such as knowing how to trap and skin small animals, just wouldn't be a very useful skill. It's not that I wouldn't mind learning, but for someone else in the city, in the desert, in the ocean, a skill just wouldn't come in very handy. Same thing could apply to solar stills, building fires with bow drills, or even shooting a gun (I know this might be blasphemous to some). Everyone has a different priority on what they consider a "necessary" survival skill or technique. No matter how much you've practiced, when the time comes to use it chances are it won't be under the same situations that you've practiced in. About the only essential skill that i think is necessary is knowing how to improvise with whatever you have at the time.