It's also interesting, as you said, that everyone seems to want to defend crap. It's like corporations keep spreading the idea that you're always getting more for your money and everyone just seems to parrot that verbatim.
My life is a constant struggle when it comes to finding nice things.
I gave up and started buying $4 rshirts. Why? Because each year the clothes I'd buy were were on quality than my previous clothes.
When buying a $4 shirt I know the price:quality ratio, it's cheap:crap. Whereas majority of the time buying more expensive it might be slightly better, but it's still expensive:crap.
Try Uniqlo. Their $20 shirts have lasted me years. I haven’t thrown a single one out yet and I just have got around 90 uses out of some of the older ones so far.
I remember a number of years back when people were equating the feeling of sturdy and heft with quality. Just feelings. No actual metrics. I would constantly look down at my beaten up plastic junk and shake my head. At least my junk still worked. Everyone else seemed to be replacing their stuff all the time because their favourite products were only designed to give the illusion of quality. In reality, the very things that gave those products the illusion of quality were diminishing the longevity of the product or ensuring that it could not withstand any abuse.
My life is a constant struggle when it comes to finding nice things.