I've got two real-world facts to point out:
--Real art has been created using (cheap) Lomo cameras (see ”Lomography” in Wikipedia)
--Many news photos are made using (low quality) cell phone cameras (see your favorite newspaper)
How about another fact – magazine reproduction is limited to about 130 lines of resolution per inch, newspapers to about 65. (These numbers are from memory, correct me if they're wrong.) In other words, printed media, including photography books, is unable to show any visible difference between photos from a 10,000 dollar pro camera and a 300 dollar point-and-shoot.
I acknowledge in advance your comments about wall-sized prints, lens clarity, high-speed sequence shooting, low-light photography, and camera sturdyness.
The point is, ordinary consumer cameras with 8 or more megapixels can be used for journalistic, sports, or landscape photography – if the person behind the camera has talent, uses off-camera flash when necessary, and post-processes the photos with distortion correction, sharpening, and curve adjustment. Anybody can do this processing withThe Gimp (free) or Photoshop (don't pay the rent this month).
I photographed the gallery pictures with my compact camera and downsized them for web presentation. Decide for yourself how much technically inferior they are to photos from pro cameras.
My camera is lighter than a Nikon, smaller than a Canon, has an optical zoom equivalent to 676 mm (which would be a huge and heavy sewer pipe on a pro camera); my camera has image stabilization, PASM modes, in-camera post processing if I choose, and a multitude of preset modes for shooting when the scene is changing too fast for me to use time setting up the camera. My camera has 12 megapixels and it cost about 400 dollars.
I can use my camera for sports and event photography, street shooting, art photography, and landscape photography. If I wanted to, I could do protraits with it too.
Each of those photos in the gallery is exactly the way I wanted it to be, not a one of them is a compromise.
Why in hell would I want a 10,000 dollar camera.