My opinion (not fact, opinion) is that high-end snares take some of the mental gymnastics out of play for me. We drummers, we have a ton to think about. I look at it this way:
- We show up to gigs (generally) before other instruments to claim our space, setup our kit to our liking
- We have a lot more to pack (hardware, cymbals, drums, my stick bag I once forgot at home)
- We are generally the engine of the band, whether it be counting off tunes, driving different sections, etc... For example, in my wedding band, which has 10 people in it, I generally am the eyes from the band leader to the rest of the band with regards to communicating next songs while in the other and mentally prepping for transitions, etc...
- Our style has to be much more versatile than other instruments (HUGE generalization). For example, when playing in my jazz group, my actual playing with regards to afro-cuban, swing, straigh 8ths, etc... will change my sound and vocabulary to a wider degree than maybe a sax player, especially when soloing
- Most people in the audience, when they walk into a club, they "see" you before they "hear" you and they generally see the drums setup and make a judgement on the night ahead of them.
With all the above being stated, I opt for the higher end stuff that I can afford that will get me versatility, tone, ease of tuning, reliability and frankly, I want my setup and playing experience each night to not have any equipment hang-ups. That is NOT to say that cheaper items cannot work. I gigged with a Stage Custom for years, and more recently used a tour custom maple, DW Frequent Flyer, etc... I never felt they limited my playing at all, however...somewhere in the jumbled brain of mine, if I made a mistake or something didn't feel or sound right, I would start to question many things, equipment included.
Since deciding to gig with all my Sugar Percussion drums, which I have a few of their snares and kits, I have fully taken that out of the mental equation (for me). I find them easy to tune, easy to hold tuning and they are just extremely reliable, so I can focus my energy on other things.
This works for me and I am 1 of 1, so to reiterate my original point, this is simply my opinion and what works for me. And honestly, I am glad to have beautiful sounding and looking drums. They start conversations where people ask me about them, I tell the story and the give me accolades which gives me a bit of confidence when I play.
So there is that.