There is a point, didger. You said you submitted the article and snapshots to Backbacker, and that they rejected it even though you claim it was well written and the photos were fine. You are apparently annoyed by that rejection and their reason - not enough of the yuppied using new equipment. Well, if you knew the market and what Backbacker wanted, why bother to send it in? You would have known it would have been rejected.
I would assume one of the goals of Backpacker is to be commercially successful - read make a profit or at least sustain itself. They seem to be meeting that goal with the present format and editorial policies.
I look at some ads these days and think they are inane. No way do they even tempt me to try their product. Then I think they may not be so stupid, but I am simply not the targetted audience. May I suggest you are not Backpacker's audience?
I have had many photos published. Not because they were magnicifant. I went to the person responsible for what photos they were looking for. Then, if I wanted to try to take them, I did and submitted them. I nailed the market.
To get back to the original question, I used a 5 mp Sony, so I guess a 20D would have been fine.