I discerned a similar ontology as the OP over the years in different hobbies too. My sense is that what quadrant one leans into can change in time and space too. In my case, I've had a whole heap of nerd hobbies in my life, among them being game collecting and retrogaming.
I was a game collector even when I was a child back in the heyday of console generations 4 and 5 all the way into my mid twenties, and also a game player since then up to the present as well. When I was much younger I used to love collecting original hardware and media complete in box and everything, and I kept everything I got when it was new in absolutely pristine condition (I was a very atypical child) but as I got older I grew tired of the collecting aspect of video games and sold everything off. At some point it dawned on me I was just buying stuff and putting it in a box (falling into the kit quadrant) and not really playing the games at all. After realizing all that, and when I had acquired everything I wanted (I tended to collect a mix of only games I liked + genre instead of by system, so my collecting requirements were much smaller and easier to achieve), the fun was over and I cashed out some years later. With retrogaming I now vastly prefer a Raspberry Pi and a gamepad in the living room. Fortunately I was able to get in and get out of the game collecting hobby when it was a fairly cheap hobby to participate in (i.e. when CIB copies of classic games were like tens of dollars at most).
I was also an avid tabletop gamer who was into the playing and collecting aspect of Magic: The Gathering and other TCGs, particularly Legend of the Five Rings, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, and VS System. I started playing MTG way back in the ancient days and had a particular taste for vintage. I also played standard, booster draft, legacy, and extended, but vintage was always my favorite. Back then vintage was accessible on a high school budget with planning and dedication, and wasn't the rich man's game it now, at least if one is not using proxies. For a long time I was both into the competitive side of the game, as well as the collecting side of the game. Over time I grew tired of the playing aspect of Magic: The Gathering and vastly preferred the collecting aspect of it, before life priorities changed entirely and I lost interest in TCGs completely.
I don't really do the collecting/kit hounding side of any hobbies anymore, I prefer the actual doing of the thing instead, but I am grateful I was able to get in, enjoy it fully, and get out of the collecting aspect of both video games and MTG long before both became impossibly expensive to participate in, though it is fun to dip in and see what is going on with those things from time to time.
Not stated in the article, but I suspect that another big reason a lot of hobbyists obsess over the gear and kit aspect of a hobby is because buying kit is a substitute for not having time or energy to actually do the hobby itself. In some sense, buying kit is materializing fantasies about actually doing the thing, but not having the time or the place to do it.
I was a game collector even when I was a child back in the heyday of console generations 4 and 5 all the way into my mid twenties, and also a game player since then up to the present as well. When I was much younger I used to love collecting original hardware and media complete in box and everything, and I kept everything I got when it was new in absolutely pristine condition (I was a very atypical child) but as I got older I grew tired of the collecting aspect of video games and sold everything off. At some point it dawned on me I was just buying stuff and putting it in a box (falling into the kit quadrant) and not really playing the games at all. After realizing all that, and when I had acquired everything I wanted (I tended to collect a mix of only games I liked + genre instead of by system, so my collecting requirements were much smaller and easier to achieve), the fun was over and I cashed out some years later. With retrogaming I now vastly prefer a Raspberry Pi and a gamepad in the living room. Fortunately I was able to get in and get out of the game collecting hobby when it was a fairly cheap hobby to participate in (i.e. when CIB copies of classic games were like tens of dollars at most).
I was also an avid tabletop gamer who was into the playing and collecting aspect of Magic: The Gathering and other TCGs, particularly Legend of the Five Rings, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, and VS System. I started playing MTG way back in the ancient days and had a particular taste for vintage. I also played standard, booster draft, legacy, and extended, but vintage was always my favorite. Back then vintage was accessible on a high school budget with planning and dedication, and wasn't the rich man's game it now, at least if one is not using proxies. For a long time I was both into the competitive side of the game, as well as the collecting side of the game. Over time I grew tired of the playing aspect of Magic: The Gathering and vastly preferred the collecting aspect of it, before life priorities changed entirely and I lost interest in TCGs completely.
I don't really do the collecting/kit hounding side of any hobbies anymore, I prefer the actual doing of the thing instead, but I am grateful I was able to get in, enjoy it fully, and get out of the collecting aspect of both video games and MTG long before both became impossibly expensive to participate in, though it is fun to dip in and see what is going on with those things from time to time.
Not stated in the article, but I suspect that another big reason a lot of hobbyists obsess over the gear and kit aspect of a hobby is because buying kit is a substitute for not having time or energy to actually do the hobby itself. In some sense, buying kit is materializing fantasies about actually doing the thing, but not having the time or the place to do it.