bugzaway

Simple (not really): Every time a photon passes through a medium, like say - glass - that photon gets distorted, at least to some extent. You must now correct for that distortion and you do so by... wait for it... passing it through another medium.

Uh oh. You've distorted it in an entirely new and exciting way. Which must now be corrected for. Guess how that's done?

So photons just started doing this in recent years?

it's always in hardware discussions and boils down to brand loyalty/tribalism.

I have had a lot of hobbies over the years and the bulk of my time on the Internet ever since I first got on 25+ years ago has been spent in related discussion forums. The part I quoted has been a fundamental feature of every single hobbyist online space I frequented. Every one.

The only caveat I would add is that it's not always hardware but it's some fundamental aspect of the hobby that splits people into tribes where they make that aspect their entire personality. Back in the day, people used to have epic flame wars about Dolby Digital vs DTS sound systems, 3Dfx graphics cards vs Nvidia, Stanley Kubrick vs Stephen Spielberg, PlayStation vs Xbox, Pan and Scan vs Letterbox, etc... these online fights got really nasty and personal while I am not gonna pretend that I was strictly above it all, in retrospect it is endlessly bizarre to think about. Ultimately none of this stuff matters so why do people exert such an extraordinary amount of energy for this.