Seems like this all started when companies realized there was a pile of money to be made if they made western hunting specific products and directed their marketing efforts appropriately. This is all a product of the free market.
Instafamous hunters, TV shows, youtube content, all of it is just advertising. Marketing 101 in 2020 says you need to have a large social media presence. How do you do that? One way is you pay someone who has a large audience. That's how you get a good looking girl, who has probably been hunting for 5 total mins, pimping and recommending products like their an expert. That company has a bad marketing department.
If you really want this movement to succeed as far as I can tell, you'd have to start giving up all the high speed gear and not expect any kind of technology advancements.
Dump your sitka or kuiu and go back to cotton or wear climbing gear.
Dump your OnX and Basemap and go back to paper maps.
Dump your Stone Glacier and Kifaru and get a Jansport.
Shoot you bow for 10 years before you trade it in if at all. Or better yet, shoot trad.
Forget about watching any kind of tutorial or how to vids on youtube from an actual expert to shorten the learning curve.
In fact, drop all forms of social media that are hunting related.
And quite possibly even deactivate your rokslide forum account...
Maybe I'm wrong here, but all our great gear, clothes, and technology in general, comes with a price that isn't being measured in dollars... And the only way the hunting "influencer" goes away is if we start voting with our wallets, eyeballs and mouse clicks.
And maybe there is a middle ground here. Where you don't need the latest and greatest of everything because some "expert" said it was better. Maybe take that cash you would have spent and send it to RMEF or MDF or some other good cause.
I feel like I became a better consumer when I realized I was ALWAYS be marketed to. Every youtube video, every TV show, every web page. All of it is designed to get you to hit the "buy now" button.
And as long as there are hunting companies with tons of marketing dollars to spend, there will always be someone willing to put their hunting exploits (no matter how bad mind you) front and center in order to cash that check.