Insurance has proved worthless. I bought my gear mostly when the Australian dollar was 50% higher than it is now, and mostly on discount. The Australian dollar purchase price of the gear was very low. Factor in depreciation and the amount they will pay is minimal - nowhere near the current replacement cost in AUD.
Furthermore, the required receipts are mostly torn or faded to illegibility due to time.
Re: continuing with makeshift equipment. I have no interest in hiking or camping for its own sake - I do it to get to landscape photography locations, with all the necesaary gear for the best possible image. That's why I came home. At the moment, there's probably a mule driver and horse owner in Peru wondering where I am.
Re: Argentina - this wasn't a camera bag. It was an old rucksack hacked apart, with a zip installed in the back for access to a laser-cut closed cell foam block holding the camera gear.
Re: buying the Cube first. I bought the Cube first because it's the one thing I can get that will be the same regardless of what system I go with. I'll need to replace it at some point anyway. And I can't travel again until I have my full kit back (or, at least, the parts of the kit necessary for that particular destination) so it doesn't particularly matter what order I buy it in.
Re: used A7r2 - if the A9 and 5Ds2 come out with 70MP, good AF and DR, there's no way I'm going with a 42MP A7r2.
Re: f/4 zooms - none of them have the performance of the top-tier f/2.8 zooms, except at the 11-24 and 200-400 extremes, where they are the top tier. They are built for size and weight, not ultimate sharpness. The situation would be different if they made some f/4 zooms with no optical compromises.
Re: Canon vs Sony - a lot of this will hinge on how the A9 does with Canon lenses with regards to AF speed (faster than on a Canon body?) and the availability of eye focus/eye tracking using adapted lenses. Although automatic CA and distortion correction is another big plus in using native lenses.