Not sure you caught my sarcasm or were agreeing with me? I think it's ridiculous that some think a person is stupid because they have beats on their ears. Your car example was a good one.
Do I think older beats were overpriced compared to their performance? Of course. Do I think lesser of people who have them? Absolutely not. My cup of tea, may not be yours. If a person is happy with them, so be it. You know how I treat the "beats issue," I choose not to buy them. Easy enough.
That said, I actually really like the new studios. I do think their performance and portability is quite good. I still don't like the price, but if I had a gift card for $100 or so, I'd gladly pay around $200 for them. On my flight to Pasadena this week I saw about 5 pair of beats on my flight going and 8 coming back, of various models and I'd hate to think everyone wearing them were wondering if they were being judged by everyone on the plane. It's about personally enjoying the music. Whether it's a $5 set from Walgreens or a $1500 set, I buy based off the enjoyment I get from the music and the headphones are the vehicle to get me there.
I think far too often, here especially, the people that want to analyze the music and the ones that want to enjoy their music get all mixed up.