I don't know the personal backgound in the specific case I know you are attacking so gratuitously, but people can study things or learn arts and crafts skills, to high levels, purely from interest, with no formal academic or professional career in them.
It may not make them as knowledgeable about a field as its professionals from whom they learn, but it takes a lot of determined, hard work to do properly, and they deserve respect for that.
Such as those who (in the UK) gain Degrees via Open University courses. Or who might not reach full concert-hall skill but can still perform respectably a Classical piano sonata or two. Or can converse to a practical level in a second language. Or make award-winning mechanical clocks or fully-working models of complex machines from raw materials - those need a range of high-grade metalworking skills
.
Two simple examples of people I have known personally....
One studied computer-programming after his retirement as a scientist, as a hobby in the days when computers were just beginning to emerge from being enormous, room-filling installations not much more powerful than an ordinary calculator. The same man was also among the country's, if not world's, top model-engineers: again, as a hobby.
The other gained a PhD in seventies, in a geological study - therefore by his own research of a topic that had caught his interest, not just summarising existing knowledge as on an ordinary degree course - as a retirement project. I am not sure, but I think his professional career was in IT. It was not geology, I do know that, so he had a lot of learning to do.
....
So don't dismiss people for taking the trouble to learn a range of things for their own sake. The woman you sneered at, even has the courage and honesty to admit not being an expert in everything; but invited constructive discussion on any of her many interests she listed.
In what academic or arts field are you a leading, internationally renowned, professional expert?
