This is not a new phenomenon. About 25 years ago, I bought an airbed and a pump from Argos (UK), a popular bricks and mortar retailer. They had two pumps that worked with that airbed, and I bought the cheaper of the two.

But it just didn't work, because of something about the way the tube joined the body of the pump. It didn't look like a manufacturing variation, but a design flaw.

I returned the pump and paid more for the more expensive one, which worked fine.

The free multimeter from Harbor Freight is like that. One of the leads snapped off internally the first time I used it. I opened it up and it was held against pressure using a plastic weld which had failed immediately.

Harbor Freight is for single-use tools. I think everyone knows that by now.