Love that image (but I use cheap kitchen scales). But no, it is not like that. As a researcher I like measurement and precision, I guess. However, most importantly, I discovered sometime ago that many of our decisions on what to take and what not are more the product of habit than anything else. So I began to investigate what was actually heavy, and where I could get rid of weight without spending too much (with young children and an expensive house I was pretty broke at the time). So I discovered that jeans are heavy, that cotton T shirts are heavy, and that some shirts are far heavier than others (by a factor of two). So only knowing more precisely the weight of things, I could save quite a bit without spending anythng. The next step was to figure out where I could loose most weight for the least amount of money. It is interesting, we are clearly concerned about the weight of a tent or a sleeping bag, and we are prepared to spend more for something lighter. The bath towel story is educating, however. You can loose 350-400 grams for only a small outlay. A sleeping bag that is this much lighter for the same warmth will cost you pretty dearly (PHD rather than Alpkit money, I guess). Remember, of your 10-15 kg gear for a solo trip, only about a third consists of the three most discussed categories of tent, sleep system and cooking set. The rest is clothing and all these little things. Fifty grams here, five hundred grams there, it all adds up, and it is where the real gains are often made - sometimes for very little money. But you will only know when you weigh and measure.
Some fourty years ago, when I went on my first backpacking trip with school friends (to England and Wales because our parents had decided that this was the safest we could do), I had a pack weight of about 12 kg, achieved without modern kit, but with the help of my mum's kitchen scales. Over the years, this went up more and more (I thought I no longer needed the kitchen scales), until I looked like a fully loaded Marine with one of these huge backpacks. I then decided that this was too hard, and I changed to cycle touring. This solved things for a while, until we had children and decided that children should not stop us cycle touring (we did not have a car). I had to remember my early skills of taking only little. At the same time our total gear weight was inevitably large, so tours were mostly through river valleys, and along tow paths. But at least, by carefully thinking about what to take and what not, we could a have a car free life and give the kids memorable holidays. Since then, the children have grown older, and the earlier constraints have disappeared. Money was no longer so tight, and we could replace much of the sometimes decades old gear with modern lighter stuff. The benefits of low pack weight are something we can now use to consider more adventurous destinations. For someone now in his late fifties, the lower pack weight helps to contine to do what I have always liked. Climbing is much harder when you grow older, and reducing weight (yours and the gear) is the only thing that really helps. That way I hope to continue riding my (lightly) loaded bike well into retirement.
Willem