I don't see why people are so harsh in mocking audiophiles. There
is a continuum of hearing ability in the general population, and if those who fancy themselves at the top of it are willing to pay, what's the problem? Audiophiles are subsiding the development of technologies such as 32-bit recording, which have benefits in other contexts aside from home audio.
From what I've seen, very few of the devices marketed to audiophiles are actually fraudulent. It's like Apple computers: a massive profit margin doesn't make a MacBook a scam, just an expensive way to get features a few months ahead of everyone else.