You do make some good points but I will expand that. If they are serious, they will use any list as a guide like I did when I started. Crossing off what you felt did not apply to you.
But even the the “basics - food, water, light, heat, defense” as you call them are not set in stone because what food do I need? How much water and where can I put it? What gun should I buy?
If you are the type to let these kind of questions trip you up, then most likely you are looking for excuses NOT to prep in the first place. I know cause I saw it with co-workers and friends I tried to get interested.
” If you are the type to let these kind of questions trip you up, “
I started prepping long before I knew there was any such thing as a “Prepper Movement”, with the wealth (sometimes drowning flood) of information it brings...
I had these questions answered to my own satisfaction (after, admittedly, a number of false-starts and changes-of-direction) as well as many others - it’s an evolutionary process, which starts with the first extra can of beans and bag of rice I bought on my weekly shopping, and, eventually gets me thinking about how to best organize my community if/when “The Day” comes...
The thing that I realized early on in my association with the Prepper Community is that there is no ‘cookie cutter’ solution - that everybody’s circumstances are different, and preps need to be as personalized as your toothbrush...
And if you’re not thinking for yourself at this juncture, you’re gonna be pretty much lost when you really are on your own....