Fair enough. The thing we like about camping is about how little we can take. Otherwise where’s the adventure? May as well stay at home.
You don’t need to cook whilst camping. The main thing we take our pocket stove for is for the coffee pot because we like the home comfort of morning coffee. That’s not to say we never cook but we don’t need to. Much of what we eat doesn’t require refrigeration and doesn’t need heating. We don’t take plastic crockery or cutlery, just 2 mugs because of the coffee. But regular mugs are fine, you don’t need special mugs. If we cook (porridge or pasta or something) we use the same mugs, and a couple of forks. Again, regular forks work fine. We do tend to carry a bottle of water.
I’ve never put a camping stove on a table, we have an MSR pocketrocket, and just do it on the ground.
Torch, fair. But airbed are extras not essentials. We do not own an airbed, but as I say would recommend the foil mats to avoid getting cold. We have roll mats.
Ultimately I suppose it’s what you’re willing to put up with. I consider us having “all the gear”, pre kids we were backpack campers but never without wine or coffee so would carry a fair amount of weight. But a lot of the things mentioned in this thread aren’t necessary imo.
I stand by my comment, you don’t need to spend £££.