I think all the bickering about “snobs” and whatever the opposite is comes from people doing very different photography and for some reason transferring their choices onto others and vice versa. E.g. I mostly photograph wildlife, often in dark forests, so this (28-400) lens is too slow for me. There are also prime lens purists, but in wildlife they mostly stick to birds, because good luck photographing e.g. small mammals like squirrels with that (I do follow one photographer who manages to do it, but it’s beyond my abilities). Your choices will be different still if you photograph mostly still scenes, maybe portraits etc, where your shutter speed lives in a dimension I generally don’t venture into. There is also the question of taste about how much depth of field you like, what apertures you like, how tightly you like to crop, whether you skew more towards low-key, high-key or balanced exposure etc.
I wish people were more cognisant of the diversity of photography different people do and not make universal judgements about gear or techniques in general.
>I do follow one photographer who manages to do it
Link?
Also to your photos, if you post them, and care to share.
What do you mean he was "stealing data"? Was he hacking into somewhere?