That being said, it all depends on your definition of hardcore.
For me personally, I don't consider most 4090 owners hardcore gamers, as most of them seem to be mostly interested in eyecandy, moreso than actually playing videogames. Again, this is based on personal experiences and interpretation, but yeah, you can have a €3000 PC, if all you do with that PC is Counterstrike, Overwatch, and mess around with Skyrim and Cyberpunk mods, than I don't consider you a hardcore gamer. Or even a gamer at all. You're just someone who occasionally plays some games to kill time. You're as much as a gamer as my mother, who plays Farmville on her tablet for 3 hours a day.