High quality audio is snake oil. It's primary value is to sell you things you don't need. So much has been done to music before you get it there is no real thing to hear. Just enjoy the music, not the fidelity.

To a degree that's pretty much true for every "aficionado" fad out there. After a certain price point, almost everything is indistinguishable. Just manufactured scarcity / "premium". I have friends passionate about wines, whiskey, coffee, audio, water??, and so on. Yes, there is a price point for every one where the difference is obvious, but after that, no one can tell the difference. We actually did a blind coffee tasting in our friend group, and most people preferred some new beans bought from starbucks out of every kind of "unique, pristine, virgin hills" stuff that's overpriced and overhyped. It's doubly funny because all my friends say starbucks coffee sucks. Well, well, well...

Snake oil in what sense? If the difference is noticeable, and some people care about those differences, I think they should be able to enjoy it. There is a lot of hocus pocus for sure, but it would appear to me that just because you personally don't value the differences offered by Hi-Res doesn't make it "snake oil"...?