The profit margins in "hard good" sales of boards, wheels, and trucks are pretty slim. They act as something close to a loss leader which is seen as necessary in order to create demand for high-margin branded apparel from the same companies. Indy makes a lot more selling cotton than aluminum. The mag is Thrasher's loss leader, and it creates the cool cachet which makes people want to spend tens of millions on logo T's. Skateboarding is a clothing company. It makes sense that skaters care so much about gear, their jobs depend upon it. The entire skate economy is propped up by profits which come from clothing and shoe sales. The big shoe and fashion companies are the biggest winners in the current state of things since everything they make is high-margin.
All we're doing out there is dancing. If I go to the ballet, I'm going to care about the costume and set design, regardless of the caliber of the dancing. It's no different with caring about spot selection and gear. Stylish gear never made wack skating any less wack, but wack gear has definitely rendered some great skating somewhat less enjoyable to watch. Skate videos are the perfect runway show/lookbook, as all of Bill's Supreme work will attest. I welcome the ever-increasing seamless fusion of skateboarding and fashion. It's been this way a long time, we used to just be too embarrassed to admit it.