Sometimes they even think the cheaper one is the more expensive one because it looks bulkier.

This happened to me when I switched to mirrorless. I used to do events with a 7D, battery grip and a big 24-70 lens. Broke my back, but people didn’t ask questions because I looked like a proper photographer. When I switched to Fuji I got some funny looks like what are you doing here with your toy camera.

Regular human photographer