Huju, you’re deflecting the discussion which you started that had to do with inherently spiritual things, i.e. bais yaakov, yeshiva, kolel, etc, and are now pretending that your gripe is with how much it costs to buy a black hat. Modern orthodox jews have their fair share of exorbitant costs; college tuition, fancy technology, etc…buying an iphone 12 is a LOT more than a borsalino, and way more than a kosher phone. Happens to be that my hats were never more than 150, even for my wedding. Many yeshiva guys buy cheaper hats. My suits are also 75-120, except for my wedding suit. I’m very frugal, and so are most of my yeshivishe learning-man friends. Also, FYI, tan suits are just as expensive as black.
To pretend that the divide between MO and the yeshiva world can be reduced to exteriors is disingenuous. If MO wore colored shirts and light suits but kept the laws of tznius, covering hair, separation of genders, had filters on their internet and kept halacha normally, it wouldn’t bother me at all of they dressed lighter. Chofetz chaim boys dress that way, and they have a robust Torah chinuch, with nothing in common with an average student in a MO school. A chofetz chaim boy in high school can discuss reb shimon and reb chaim with a yerushalmi boy with little issue aside from a language barrier. Yeshiva styles change and don’t matter much; to think that the hat and jacket make the ben torah is very, very superficial.