Im pretty new at this myself and dont have any experience with HF (yet) but Ham radio is no different than any other hobby:
You have guys that eat sleep and breathe the hobby
You have the guys that just buy gear and never use it as a hobby
You have guys that only have a hobby so they can be "better" than somebody else
No, you dont have to have a 200ft antenna at your house. You can get on the air as a technician an talk on local repeaters pretty easy and for not a lot of money. There are digital modes that allow you to talk to people all over the world by using the internet and a gateway. There are tons of big and small ways to get into HF, many of them in which im struggling with right now, all based on what you want radio to do for you.
Julian is one of my favorite, but he is waaaayyy more extreme than I want to go (many arent interested in this type of radio stuff as he primarily does low wattage digital communication)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxpbuB-C3dg