Here's one photographer using cheap point-and-shoot that comes quickly to mind: is Magnum photographer Alex Majoli good enough for you? He preferred to work with an Olympus C5050 point-and-shoot, which was cheap back then and you can pick up for $50 or less on ebay right now:
Seriously, photography is probably best example of a subculture full of amateurs who obsess over gear and think throwing more money at gear is going to give them a better end product (although there are many similar subcultures). Crap is crap, however good the gear is that's used to make it.
Here you can read another article about a professional photographer's use of cheaper cameras:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/multi_page8c1c.html?cid=7-6468-7...
Seriously, photography is probably best example of a subculture full of amateurs who obsess over gear and think throwing more money at gear is going to give them a better end product (although there are many similar subcultures). Crap is crap, however good the gear is that's used to make it.
Here you can read another article about a professional photographer's use of cheaper cameras:
https://blog.mingthein.com/2012/04/12/professional-photograp...
and, e.g., a discussion by serious photographers here:
https://www.seriouscompacts.com/threads/great-photographers-...
.. and this page is also interesting, "13 Digital-point-and-shoots used by the pros":
https://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/11/digital-point-and-shoo...
.. or this one, some beautiful photos by photojournalist who paid $70 for the camera (way back in 2011) ...
http://www.zoriah.net/blog/2011/04/photojournalism-with-a-po...