People that are really devoted to their hobbies will tend to invest more in tools so it's to be expected I guess...but I see plenty of amazing stuff with free or less-expensive tools. RobA is, I think, a Gimp master and Gandwarf makes some pretty awesome cities in CC3 with City Designer (hope I got those right) and there are many more here doing the same. Advanced tools help but Picasso could have done a masterpiece in Photoshop CS4 or with an inkpen on a cocktail napkin...so they're not everything.
M