..but with reasonable levels of competency and location the rig with the better gear will sound better than the rig with the subpar gear.
Sure, no argument there, everyone at TS understands what good gear is capable of.
The thing is, those
reasonable quantifiers actually imply the same hierarchy outlined above.
Reasonable location > reasonable level of competency > better or subpar gear
When either of the first two are not up to snuff, reasonably competent gear used incompetently from a poor location will not save the day.