I love photography, I men who does not love focusing a lens on the light reflected or emitted from objects into a real image on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a timed exposure.
I do like to take pictures, but not with the same passion as you.
If you need to take good pictures, all you need is a good camera. It has made the  modern photographic camera evolved from the camera obscura.
Yes indeed. A  good camera is everything.
But do you ever consider photography a science or art?