Yeah. I’m a bit of an audiophile (used to be a music producer) and have almost no interest in audio hardware other than how it sounds.

But it seems strange to me to apply the same reasoning to stationery. With sound, there is literally only one thing that matters: how accurately and precisely you can vibrate the air. With pens, it isn’t so easy to quantify. How do you measure what it means to feel nice to write with, or to hold in the hand? Or what makes a particular ink pleasing to the eye? There’s huge scope for personality and opinion that isn’t present in other kinds of what you might call tools.

And, separately: what is meant by ‘fetishisation of x’? Is it synonymous with ‘interest in x’? To me it seems to be used simply to look down on those who have interests not considered worthy; if one disapproves of singing one might as well refer to it as ‘fetishisation of the human voice’. But perhaps there’s more to it than that.