I don't know where you're getting the idea that people in Western countries are still extremely rich in recessions from. The US consumer market in particular relies on massive debt and is very vulnerable..
This survey literally states that 68% of those surveyed are worried about their ability to cover 1 months expense without a job...
It's quite typical for a lot of people to spend most of their income and/or to have excessive debt, but that is not a sign of poverty or low income, but a sign of poor financial education or a lack of long term thinking.
Pretty much all rankings or indexes show that Americans are extremely rich on average. Due to a lesser safety net, this may be a bit more volatile, but a pretty small percentage of the population actually loses their job during most recessions. It's pretty typical for unemployment to go from 3-5% to something like 7-10%. That means that people overwhelmingly do not lose their jobs. Also, the people who lose their job most are typically the precariat, so the risk of unemployment is actually far less for most people.
Also, typically global recessions hit second and third world nations way harder, as Western nations pull out their money and the like. So the US is really not all that vulnerable. It's just one of these myths that I often see.
Note that the kind of surveys that you point to are notoriously crappy and politicized. What does 'worry' even mean in the context of that survey? If people aren't actually cutting their spending to the bone, which 68% of Americans are definitely not doing (if you really think they are, you have an extremely misguided belief in what is actually going on), then how much are they actually worrying? Not enough to claim that the survey shows that they won't buy a cheap graphics card...
That is not the characteristics of a population inclined to spend on luxuries during harder economic times.
That is total and utter nonsense. The US has extremely high spending on luxuries. Do you seriously want to argue that the US population only spends money on necessities and not on luxuries? How do you explain all the luxurious shops all over the US and luxurious items that people own?
Perhaps you should talk with some people around you (assuming that you are American) to find one of these people who 'worry' about lasting a month without a job and asking them about what things they buy. Most likely they spend a ton of money on luxuries. Of course, people often convince themselves that a lot of those luxuries are necessities and you may also have that mindset, so you might not actually recognize what luxuries actually are. But just look at poor countries with an open mind and you will recognize that StarBucks coffee and a very big & expensive SUV are not actually necessities.
It should be self evident to everyone here why consumers would cut back on items that require large upfront purchases (I. E gaming PCs) versus more periodic, smaller payments
Of course, but you can actually upgrade or build a gaming PC piecemeal. Also, 'large' is relative.
Your argument actually supports mine, because if we get cheapish cards that are fairly powerful, then they can cut back by buying a relatively cheap card or PC instead of a more expensive hobby.
Fact is that the average US income is about $75k a year. So a $300 card is 1/250th of that. That is wealth and means that such a purchase is unlikely to impact the finances of the average American significantly. Mexico has an average income of about $16k, so the same card is actually 5 times more expensive to them relative to their income, at 1/53th of their average income. And Mexico is far from being the poorest country.