While my Leica III cameras are a constant companion, for a definite photographic outing I tend to take an M camera. The main reason that there is no Nikon rf or Contax cult in the same sense that there exists a Leica “cult” is because introduction of Leica M3 was so superior that it drove all other high end rangefinder cameras from the market. To some extent, the M3 was influential in the rise of the SLR because Nikon had to find some way to compete. At the same time Leitz was slow to appreciate competition from the slr and lost a large part of a potential market to Nikon and others.
With regards to price, some younger members of APUG buying used cameras in a depressed market do not seem to realize how expensive quality cameras were when new. One could buy a new car for the price of a new Contax IIa and a couple lenses. I managed to get a new Nikon kit from Japan in 1959-60 for $189 (if I remember correctly), much cheaper than the asking price in the USA. My tuition at Columbia at that time was $15 per credit hour...now $500 or more. Retina cameras, not cheap, were known as the poor man’s Leica. Only in recent years could I afford Hasselblad lenses for my Hassy camera. In some ways we are living in good times. Many on APUG who suffer from GAS today would have been free from this affliction a few decades ago...myself included.