An average player with a $1000 set of irons and $500 driver will have the possibility of hitting it further/straighter than an average player using irons and driver picked up at a pawn shop. Better grooves, better shafts, better tech on the face allowing for larger sweet spots, better grips for less slippage, better shoes for less slippage. I can go on and on.
And an average player that's able to put a little spin on a pinnacle will put the same spin on a ProV1, but with better results because of the texture of the ball. Better balls have softer, "stickier" shells that allow the ball to grab the club face and, as a result, grab the grass and react.
For your average mid-handicapper like me (I'm 16 handicap, basically your typical local player) equipment means next to nothing so long as it was made by a reputable company in the last 10 years. I can rent the new Taylor Made M2 set from my club and play essentially the exact same as if I use my brother's ancient set of Titleists he bought for about 150 dollars including the bag. Personally I'm still running second hand Taylor Made Burner 2.0's, again I play the exact same as with the other sets. The biggest difference between sets to me by far is
a) Launch angle on the driver, and
b) What clubs you actually have in your bag, in particular what set of wedge angles your set has. I recently swapped out my 5-wood for a 4th wedge as it matters more to me, for example.
As for balls I've used Pro V1s, standard Taylor-Mades and I've used the no-name shit you'll find lost in the woods, again I see essentially no difference in how far the ball travels off the tee (and I use a Garmin S3 to measure my drives with my typical distance being 260-280 yards) or how it reacts when biting on the green from a pure wedge shot with a bit of spin.
I'm sure that once you get down to scratch or pro play it starts to matter more, but for the vast, vast majority of people, golf equipment is pay to enter but not pay to win. You can't buy your way to a better score.
Even if equipment was the differentiating factor in real life, I still don't think it would excuse predatory microtransaction practices in a game.