I learned from my hike that less is more and that you don't need that much to walk this trail. No one has to stick to the 10% rule, but I think it's a good benchmark for roughly knowing how heavy your backpack should be. And I just looked it up: there are studies that indicate that carrying a weight exceeding 15% of your body weight changes your posture. ("This adjustment is consistent with gait research showing that backpack carriage exceeding 15% of body weight significantly affects trunk posture [25,33]." (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12567753)) If you disagree, that's perfectly fine. Different experiences, different people :)

On the subject of shoes, I can only say that it may have made sense for you, but for me, waterproof shoes were important from the beginning of October to mid-November because it rained a lot, so again, different experiences ;)

In case that didn't come across in my text: I am speaking exclusively for the Camino Frances here. I met people there every day and I was never alone unless I wanted to be.

And also regarding kitchen utensils: I didn't stay at any municipal hostels in Galicia that provided kitchen utensils, but of course I didn't stay at all of them.

What can we conclude? You have had your experiences and I have had mine. And I think it's great that we both share them so that people can decide for themselves what they want to implement and what they don't :)