I think the dirty secret is that a lot of it is not "1/2 the price that lasts 1/4 the time" but "1/4 the price that lasts 9/10 the time" or "1/2 the price for the exact same product without half of the budget going to marketing".

It's not all of it. Some things are seriously worse quality. But really a ton of the "better quality" is just better marketing.