odd how your gear is somehow your badge of quality assurance to some clients
Not all that odd, really. People's general knowledge about professional photography is limited to what they see in movies and in sports, and that's photogs with lots of bags, several cameras, giant lenses, tripods, etc. I have to admit I had the same impression before I started researching to buy a DSLR even though I had turned out quite a few really great photos with my P&S for years, and with my 110 for even more years before that.
While there's certainly a lot to be said about all that gear, it's not obvious to the general public that you can accomplish 90-95% of the same quality of photos with smaller, more compact systems, so they equate gear with 'serious' photography. Not really knowing the kind of artistic talent, training, and preparation it takes to take those great photos they admire, most folks fall back on looking at the gear as a metric for the quality of a photographer. At least in the U.S., we tend to trust technology and gear a lot more than we do people's innate ability to do something creative on their own. People don't want to have the impression that they're paying good money for something their friends could have done for free with their P&S, so they look for gear as a sign of comfort. Interestingly enough, some of the best photos from my wedding were taken by friends with their P&S cameras.