[bojan]

IMHO, there is no difference between renting and buying your own equipment.
If you are spending significant money to own something (that will be used couple of times in a year) you may as well go a bit further and rent the already adjusted collimated etc gear. The results will be much more cost effective... The worst approach (money-wise of course) is building your own equipment.
Actually, you may even order the image, because the equipment operator can be considered as part of the renting equipment (being this a human operator or computer).
This is exactly what professional astronomers are doing. Does this make them "cheaters" or "criminals" even?
Of course not.

Those things are very individual obviously... and the only thing that matters is the enjoyment in doing it.

That is why the results (images) obtained like this can not possibly be compared (unless they are used for science.. which is totally different thing then).. and all those competitions are pretty much nonsense. Those people should just stop beating around the bushes and just present their bank accounts, to shorten the competition procedures.

The only real difference is ATM.