For sure, but that's a cognitive bias.

These people go out claiming these things as fact...and unfortunately there's an entire industry out there supporting and benefiting from their claims.

Right, saying something is better because it's quality - absent price - is better than something else's quality is different than saying something is just plain old better (which it might be just because it's more expensive).

Seems to me that there is something people want - a better audio experience. They may actually get that by paying more, but the preferable outcome would be to get better objective quality. In fact, I think it would be preferable to even pay more to get the better objective product and know you weren't duped. I think there is probably a market for consulting:

value1 = objective_value1 + value_of_knowing_you_werent_duped

value2 = objective_value2 + cognitive_bias_for_paying_more

If it's true that objective_value2 is actually << objective_value1, and cognitive_bias_for_paying_more is not too significant, value_of_knowing_you_werent_duped could be a lucrative business.