I'd ask that you define what "playing" a synthesizer entails. A lot of that comes down to designing sounds, especially given the fact that you have so many different kinds of oscillators interacting with each other.

Someone can play a keyboard, perhaps, but that's only one of many interfaces to interact with synthesizers.

It's not really the same as a guitar, where your fingers are directly responsible for the vibrations coming out of the strings.

Ehhh, some guitar hoarders just like the different variations. Some actually understand the differences between guitars and have different ones for different sounds. Most studios have at least five different electric guitars not to show off, but because they need them in order to create different soundscapes. The way you can tell who a shiny hoarder is, is that they go for the extremely expensive stuff when a real player would know the cheapest possible option. I've got six guitars, each one has a specific role when recording, and I've never paid more than $200 for a guitar. I've got a friend who has nine guitars, costing between $500 and $2,000, and they can't play anything they didn't learn from a chord chart off Ultimate Guitar.

The same thing applies to synths. Everyone wants a $5,000 Juno-60 when you can get the same functionality out of a cheap $450 CS Reface. Or to go even cheaper, a $100 pre-amp, $100 used PSR keyboard, and access to VST4Free.