Haha yeah I know. There are tons here as well. Outside your house you basically have to assume you are on camera. I guess people have kind of a helpless attitude towards it, kind of like they've given up, but with photographers they still feel they have enough power to avoid the shot. They think "the gov and all private businesses may be recording my face, but by god I'll avoid that photographer!" haha It's silly but people are silly. I've shot people long enough that I can kind of guess which people will or won't care, so I try to not even provoke the ones who look like they don't want it. But being a ninja helps ;)

You know, I think buying a lot of gear only to realize it's not about the gear is kind of a rite of passage. Welcome to being a photographer ;) I have a lot of expensive cameras and lenses but yet I find probably most of the time I'm shooting with... my smartphone. haha. But like you said, it's all about going out and doing it, and so whatever allows you to do that works.