Excellent photographers are searching for the right "look", but most photographers, even among professionals, are rather mediocre. I've been on the buying end of photography for many years, and it's more often than not difficult to find photos and/or photographers that qualify as excellent, from a technical as well as an artistic point of view. With surprisingly many photos, it's hardly possible to evaluate if they were taken with an iPhone or an MF camera.
I'm exaggerating, but not by much. One of the good things with this forum is that the creative as well as technical standards here are very high, so there's a lot to learn for people like me. But I do honestly think that there's often a conflict between the search for continuously improving technical standards and to improve one's skills and get the most out of the equipment already sitting on one's desk. So I've decided against a D800 for the time being because it doesn't offer enough improvement over the Nikon gear that I already have, at least not from a creative point of view. MF film on the other hand, is a totally different world. I will obviously produce less that way, but hopefully, long term, of superior quality. And when commercial clients need urgent results, I do have digital equipment to cater for those needs too.
It's not a question of either or, but to find a combination of gear that will solve the challenges that are present in each individual photographer's world.
Economy is often a limiting factor, particularly in this part of the world where many local photographers charge as little as $200 per day. But I've found that the only way to survive is to look beyond that and ask not what the client is willing to pay for a photo, but what he's willing to pay for my photo, and then ask myself: Can I create that photo with the gear I have or with other gear that I can actually afford.
So instead of looking for ever improving technical perfection, it makes more sense to look for creative development and a personal style, the "look". And if the price of that look doesn't pay for digital MF, I have to find other ways of creating it, be it APS-C or MF film or any other format available out there.
The gear is not the product, it's the tool needed to create the product, but we all know that, although we sometimes tend to get astray and create needs that don't really lead us anywhere in the real world.
Now, if I could only learn to live what I'm preaching :ROTFL: