It is miles better than the $5 Ikea clock, but I see no reason to pay more since the $12 one looks good and runs perfectly well.

Because the parts fit better, there is less friction. Less of a load on the motor means the battery lasts much longer in a Seiko.

They also keep time better.

I laughed out loud as I can hear my alarm clock ticking 8ft away thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk quite loudly. You can actually hear it from the living room if the TV is off, perhaps I should look into something made a bit better.

That most people do not care about the quality of the movement is why Wal-Mart has lots of shells with the same movements.

Amazon could greatly improve its counterfeit issue by giving manufacturers more control over their brand. That, to me, is the root of the issue.

Only difference from what OP suggested is it doesn't seem they manually look at all initial listing. Apart from that it seems they claim having exactly the described system by OP in place.

There is some truth to this sentiment. I think part of it comes from the "race to the bottom" for low prices which fosters disposable consumables (even for durable goods) and leaves you with monopolies / oligopolies after the dust settles.

Technically no. Event generics have different excipients and excipients give them a slightly different profile.

I don't quite understand this rant - it's like complaining there's toomany different paintings to choose to put on the wall.

What standardization could enable, in a better world, is customizability - the ability to cheaply compose standard parts and some dressing on top to match a particular demand of an individual customer. Instead, we get common customizations prebaked and deployed on the market in a shotgun fashion. It's extremely wasteful, and a reflection of the fact that matter is too cheap these days.