Snob appeal?.....perhaps, but there is soooo much more than that involved. Why do we continually strive to improve products and services that are 'good enough'? Why does Leica have a 50mm f0.95 lens for $10,000? Isn't an f1.2 good enough? Why did we go to the moon? Its in our dna...sorta like the sharks (and I don't mean lawyers although it applies)....keep moving or die. :D
If you don't need it or don't want it, then by all means don't buy it, but don't denigrate it and try to dismiss it as only 'snob appeal'.

Well said! My company logo: "Innovate or Die"

Leica M rangefinders (and Zeiss Icon at 1/3 the price) are the gold standard for lens quality in the wide angle to moderate telephoto range. No other 35mm cameras can compare. Their lenses perform better wide open (especially the 50mm f/2) than others stopped down.

New Leicas are expensive, but used they are reasonable.

But rangefinders provide an entirely different way to photograph. They are appropriate for travel, street and personal photography (they are incredibly quiet) but not for macro, action or sports since you do not have long telephoto, zooms and macro lenses.

You can still take a better picture on film with a fifty year old Leica and lens than with a new DSLR that costs 3 times as much. Five years from now that $3,000 DSLR will be obsolete and in the dustbin and the Leica will be only 55 years old.