Growing up in a poor family, I learned not to waste things, save money, reuse old stuff out of necessity, thus I’ve never approached minimalism from a privileged point of view. Being immersed in hyper consumeristic rituals has never been my experience.

Yup.

The empty big house "promote a way of life that looks unrealistic and fake". About this lifestyle:

Such lifestyle is not attainable by normal people. I mean the regular folks who need to go to work, cook their food, do the laundry, maybe some gardening or else — they can’t afford to spend buckets of money on few hyped products, buy coffee beans from a remote region in South America that cost half a salary at the point of sale. Above all, they cannot keep their place within a spotless private hospital aesthetic, because they actually live in there. They don’t usually give TED talks either, especially not to promote some other form of inspirational American Dream that’s great to sell another book.

They can’t afford to do with less.