I don't really think "gatekeeping" is involved in this - merely an attempt to differentiate how seriously you take the craft and how much you've put into it.
At least for the mastering I do, and this surprises me as much as anybody, I could do it anywhere with a good laptop, a good dac/amp, and the right IEMs...everything else could be software. And, I would be 100% confident in my output. It took building a "pretty good" home studio, taking it seriously, and doing a lot of work both for clients and with "free" practice stuff to get to that point. It took demoing a reasonable amount of external gear to come to the conclusion that plugins were not just "good enough" but actually "better for me" (especially after workflow and my thought processes and decisions are taken into account, but also just sonically). And that was after coming up in a high-end pro studio (you have heard albums recorded where I interned). The monitoring thing came out of a need to work quietly during lockdowns after my wife started working from home too - isolation wasn't that much of a priority when I built this room, and it wasn't good enough to not bother her.
There's just no simple way to get that idea, that experience, into a single term.
There's no way to convince anyone else that the simple monitoring actually does work for me or that I consider it "better" than my room that cost ~100x as much as the setup I was talking about. There's no way to convince Bruce or anyone else who prefers hardware why I prefer the sonics of working ITB. There's no great way to describe just how much I prefer an all-ITB workflow for everything after tracking other than maybe to watch me work.
Photos of a space can help...but that lets you fall into a bit of a trap of judging a room based on your always limited experience. When I look at the pictures Bruce posted...I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be happy working in that room. I don't like those speakers or how they're placed; I don't like where the screens are; I have a bias against some of the gear I can see. Etc.. But, people ITT have praised his work, and he sounds confident. So, apparently, it works for him. Those pictures aren't all that useful.
I've seen a handful of "studio" spaces for people who do other things (pottery, painting, metal work, etc.)...and some of them look like ramshackle, thrown-together, junk-level gear crammed into a space, etc.. Some of them put out really good work. I know a professional metalworker who's re-forged parts for his freaking car using a mix of pro-level equipment and stuff he built in his back yard out of literal trash.
It's not gatekeeping. It's marketing.
That is just it, in a nutshell. Your experience has led you to your workflow and that has grown hand in hand. I’m entirely convinced that works for you and I’m sure you are getting good results.
I did read a book a while ago titled “Your Mix Sucks” or something to that effect. The writer suggested using a simple boombox for mixing the first 50-60% of your mix. I did try this (in VSX, anyway) and the results were interesting. I found less problems when fine tuning the mix from environment ot environment. So I can understand mixing on IEMs. Or anything, really. Some people use those Aurotones or whatever they’re called.
My monitors are basically for tracking only right now. My “room” (an unfinished basement with a lot of bad plumbing and general awfulness) has fatal flaws that are only fixed by relocating. That happens next month, thank god.
There is somewhat of an undertone here, but I also wouldn’t call it gatekeeping either. There is this thing with personalities. I can somewhat compare this to tattoos and tattooing. Everyone starts with one tattoo. They get the tattoo, and all they want to talk about is tattoos with heavily tattooed people. I happen to be a moderately to heavily tattooed person. I dont even think about tattoos, the fact I am covered in them or anything until someone else brings it up. That someone else is usually the entry level tattoo enthusiast. They tend to want to bridge commonality. We are not the same. I have spent hours upon hours upon days upon weeks in a chair in pain, peeling, healing and leaking plasma all over my bedsheets. What you have is a 15 minute piece. Thats cool and everyone starts somewhere, but there is a world in between us they seem to latently want to erase because they just got a tattoo.
I think the same goes for the entry level home recording enthusiast, especially the ones on social media with a desktop Apollo charging 20 bucks a song for people to come record. It isnt just the gear. As you noted and I can concur, you can get pretty good results with a minimum amount of stuff. It is just the time and the effort and the experience put into it all. A minimalist setup, if by design is great. If that gets great results and is a good workflow, I totally get that. However, a minimalist setup is typically associated with one tattoo guy, the enthusiast. The guy who got an interface for Christmas and is just wetting his toes. Again, we all started somewhere. We can talk, but we are not the same. When I attended an Eddie Kramer seminar, I shut up and listened. When I asked a question, it was with great respect. In no way, shape or form am I his people. I know it and don’t pretend otherwise. We are not from the same tribe, and that is painfully obvious.
I hope all this doesnt come across as snooty or high on myself or anything like that. Nor am I insinuating just because someone amasses a boatload of gear they know what they’re doing. I’m a middle class slob who has hung around the recording circles for a while and have been fortunate enough to get a lot of gear I admire and put it to use. Folks in my circle tend to be similarly situated. I’m a big fan of masochism to get results and self depreciating humor is my forte. I’ve made a LOT of bad recordings over the years, but that is how I learned. When I started this game YouTube wasn’t a thing and social media did not exist. I wasn’t fortunate enough to intern at a studio and watch someone else work and learn. I had small children to feed. I still make some bad recordings sometimes, and lately I’ve made nothing because life is happening too fast.
