I totally get what you're saying, and you're absolutely right. For anyone who knows better, and is willing to put quality components on their car... big big things can happen. I know that isn't most people.
Quality stuff that makes your car perform better is the whole point of tuning though. If you want bling only, you aren't a tuner. You're some fool who thinks your flashy chrome is gonna net you some 'tang. And hell... you might be right.
In the end, it's what works for you. I certainly won't lose any sleep over WALKING on someone during a race.
2 pounds as hard as it sounds to believe, will produce a noticeable improvement in handling and braking.
Drag launching too.
That's just your first two pounds, or in this case x2 for 4 pounds of reduction. By the time you put everything under the spring on a diet (you could save more on the UCA, brakes, lugs), you would be amazed. Most of your gain is going to be from changing rims though. You may have bling rims, but they are probably heavy junk as far as performance is concerned. They also severely decrease the effectiveness of your brakes. And actually, depending on your brakes you can save a lot there too.
Girls might like it tho... "Check out that whip baby. That ($1400) Honda is mine, but I gots mad chrome upgrades and check out my JDM body kit."
I went from stock alloy rims on one of my cars, and went from 23 pounds to 17 pounds... -6 pounds x 4. 24 pounds of unsprung weight reduction, add the LCA at a conservative 1 pound, (and I'll bet the stock LCA is a LOT heavier than you think, there is way more than a 1 pound difference to be had on a quality replacement) and you have 28 pounds. The effect is cumulative, the more you lighten the better it gets. That's just changing two parts per wheel. I didn't stop there, I changed more... but there were quite a few more things that could have been swapped. The end effect: I can keep up with much faster cars because I can brake waaaaaaaay later and carry more speed in a corner. And that's on the street.
My folks (me too, sad since I don't have one) are in the FCA (Ferrari Club of America). That car I had built out was the only reason I could keep up on runs at all. Yeah, they weren't pushing it... but I had to just to keep up with that.
There is a reason why high end suspensions are virtually all forged aluminum and titanium.
But Ferrari makes junk right? Bugatti? Lamborghini and Porsche too... Girls HATE those cars. Panties drop for a Honda that scrapes going out of driveways and has flat black spray paint. And lots of chrome.
I say, go big or go home.