Yup pretty much where I was coming from as well.
Did Noel Gallagher play Epiphones? From what I remember they were streets ahead of guitars around the same price range. I read an article I got through an email from Reverb.com about the new range of high end gibbos coming out and the comments...well there seems to be a lot of folk prepared to walk away from Gibson.
To be honest though, I have no beef with what people like and don't like. Gibson, Strats, Marshall, Musicman....all can be top quality and great if that's what you're into. What I took exception to was the Grandadian "In my day we just took a Gibson and plugged it straight in" crap. That kind of comment is so full of patronising bs. So if its not a strat or gibbo plugged into a Marshall, its not legit? Sorry but that's horse crap.