This entire site* is bolstered by the widely held (even if rarely admitted) belief that a new camera/lens/printer/paper/ink will improve your photography, and all too often as a way of ignoring the fundamental issues of getting round to taking 'better' photos in the first place. New kit can encourage you to expand and explore your photography, or it's 'failings' provide an excuse as to why the next model is what is really needed ;-)
I am no fan of this kind of attitude towards those who want better tools to work with.
So it does nothing for people's photography to get a true wide-angle lens or a 400mm lens or simply a fast prime lens in stead of a standard zoom? Of course it does. Look at your own work. Better gear opens for new photographic opportunities, visual expressions and allows for new subject perspectives and choices.
Think most people looking for better camera equipment are hoping it will enable them to realize more of the photographic ideas they have - rather than improving their photographic ideas.
Also, getting new equipment motivates many people to try out new stuff and shoot more - testing the limits and new options of their new gear - an excellent thing in itself.
I got along very well with a range finder, guessing the distance and having to set the light manually. However, better Camera and lens options are working together to allow me to take a much, much wider range of pictures and subjects today and esspecially using natural light in a way impossible back then.