We talk about tools all the time because it's fun and it's something we all have in common. Every once in a while something like clang comes along and it can change everything.

What we don't have in common are the exact problems we are trying to solve. That's where design patterns and other higher level concepts become useful. Because the problems and solutions are so context specific, they happen on mailing lists. Tool discussions, on the other hand, are more generic and I think that's why you see them in more places.