I agree with the OP's point. We've gone from a combined income of £1100 a month with non negotiable costs of £850 last Autumn (plus emergency expenses of £100 a week due to a medical emergency) to one of £3400.
This change means that we can get equipment that works. A blender that can cope with blending (glares at Tesco), an oven that has more temperatures than 1. off and 2. hotter than the surface of the sun and is still cheaper buying new and installing legally than it would be to get an engineer out and paying for the correct parts, as it needs about 5 replacing along with the thermostat. A microwave that heats evenly, won't rust and can be mounted on a shelf, thus freeing up space to run another worktop along that side of the kitchen. We can get new pans that have non stick that lasts and/or can take the heat of a hob without buckling. I won't replace all of them because I got stainless steel saucepans in Argos in 1992 that are perfectly adequate. But I'm going to get a good frying pan because the cheap ones we had have all stuck, even with far more fat that I want to use, after a couple of months.
It's easy to clean up because we could afford to replace the last burned out vacuum cleaner (lasted 3 months and Amazon wouldn't take it back) with a Miele and I won't tear my abdominal muscles scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees like I did in February because we have a steam mop now. The replacement dishwasher will mean we use less water to get things clean and when we do need to run the tap, we won't waste water because the hot is guaranteed to come through since we had the new boiler fitted.
Yes, I could already cook. But I'm a way better cook when I'm not trying to compensate for shit equipment or fighting all the other crap in our lives that was as a result of being skint. Not just because I'm happier, but because we have decent stuff that works.
A good cook is a good cook. But to be a great cook requires equipment that is up to the job - would Nigella be able to cater for a dinner party in an alluring manner with twenty quid and a knackered toaster? Like fuck would she. Would any of them be able to prepare steak tartare with a kitchen knife from the pound shop or glued to the spot as though the floor was lava because there is exactly 50cm x 60cm of worktop in the entire 180cm x 140cm kitchen? It would look like cat food - or they'd walk out, screaming about how impossible it was to work in these conditions. Her fucking fridge freezer probably takes up more floor space than that.
Those little old ladies in rural wherever can cook because their 'not special' equipment will include an ancient rolling pin made of decent wood, a cast iron pan made about 80 years ago, good quality ingredients from the local area (organic eggs from their own chickens, sun ripened tomatoes grown on their rich volcanic soil, top quality oil from their great grandfather's olive trees), a 120 year old wood fired oven, knives that have been sharpened a thousand times and seemingly, from the TV shows, a 250 year old solid oak table larger than my entire kitchen.