EDIT: I’d like to clarify I agree about the gatekeeping this reinforces and this really doesn’t get used often, and if anything it sees more use among friends for silly reasons, like missing a Velcro on a shoe or something. Like I said I don’t know the origin because I don’t really engage with the “joke” that much.
Yeah I suppose, I think there’s a certain visual associated with it that gear plays a part of. Like big wall harness, TCPros, and chalk bucket clipped in the front, trying to top out some boulder that ends on a jug or something.