That is an exaggeration, for most embedded jobs you don't need $100k in test equipment. I am sure there are exceptions, but usually you will need the target, a debugger and _maybe_ a logic analyzer or an oscilloscope.
Interestingly enough, I worked as an embedded dev for 3 years already and I used a scope and a Logic analyzer maybe 1 week during this time. I do admit that my job is kind of shitty and I'm working on messy in-house frameworks. I bet Saleae + oscope are indispensable when doing board bringup or things like that tough.
For my home-lab I went the el cheapo way and bought my own hackable Rigol (brought it to 100 Mhz) and, to my great shame, I bought a Saleae clone. I promise, Sealae guys, I'll buy an original on my next raise, I promise!
Yea, it depends on what you're up to. Post setup, when you're just doing DSP or something you're not going to need much at all but we spin boards pretty frequently due to our contract cycle.
I've gone the same direction with my home setup. "hacked" Rigol DS1054Z + power supply and anti static mat. It's not as nice as my Tek at work but it'll do most of what I want. I usually just borrow the saleae from work if I need one and I have a little bus pirate that's occasionally indispensable for SPI/serial/I2c stuff
Also, if you're dealing with uCs, you'll almost always want at least a Saleae and a 100+mhz scope.