It was around 1988, I worked with a guy who fished, I don't know, Red Man Tournament or some such. Asked me, let's go this weekend and fish the tournament on Wylie. Nope, I have no interest in tournament fishing. Come'on, let's go fishing Saturday. Marty, I'll go fishing, but not a tournament. Why not? I respond, the pressure will It'll take the fun out of it, it's just not why I fish & don't want that. Okay, he says, we'll just go fishing.
Long story short, it was one of those epic days, topwater action on fire. Zara Spook, Devils Horse, Tiny Torpedo, didn't matter, they were on fire. We weighed a very nice "tournament limit" kept two good ones, filleted them and had a fish fry back home with cole slaw and fries, homemade cocktail sauce. He found out later our weighed "tournament limit" would have blown the winner of that tournament out of the water. Don't remember how much weight it was, but he said, DANG YOU, we should have entered the tournament. I said, would you have fished the same area with pressure on? Probably not. Would you have had as much fun as we did? No. Would you have enjoyed that nice bass fillet dinner we had? Definitely not. See, that's why I have no interest in tournament fishing.
*I have nothing against people who DO enjoy tournament fishing nor am I down on tournaments in general. They have gotten a bit out of control IMO and it seems some of those participating, particularly some of the pros, seem to think when they're on the water they have some type of carte blanche on the lake. I think that snobbery is the very thing the OP was observing and I believe that snobbery has indeed grown from what we've been talking about in general, and tournament fishing specifically.