Btw, i think in total, I have 3 frames, 4 bags, a camp bag, 5 internal framed bags, 2 natives, a quandry, and a bane, and about 1000$ in accessories.
Yes, I'm obsessed. I'm a kifaru junkie . But, thats after a 3 year international world walk (where i switched between maybe 20 some odd military surpluss bag options)... and 5 more years of traveling via my feet and a pack using non-kifaru gear.
So i guess it took me 8 years of trwkking to find Kifaru. And now, 9 years after i bought my first piece of Kifaru gear, i still have yet to have an equipment failure of any kind. . .
That is why i use Kifaru. Sure, if you have the $, then i personally (and im sure most if not all would agree) would opt to pair the perfect ext. Frame to every bag you have. But in the absence of the aforementioned spare bills; one well fitted, all around frame will get you pretty damned far, in that you could literally run that one frame with 20 plus different main bag options and thousands of feame/pack/lid-daypack/pouches/belt/belt accessories combinations.
Modularity is the key to most instances of efficiency.