That's interesting, I've been renovating my home for the past two years and have had the exact opposite experience: I've been quite happy with my cheap pipe bender, cheap angle grinder, cheap hex crimper, cheap multipipe pliers as well as store brand consumables like hybrid glue, tape, drill bits and whatnot. For electrical work I do buy Knipex most of the time and for tools that get used heavily it's usually Bosch, plus I'm never going near cheap paint again, so I do see the advantage of trustworthy brands, but it's nice to know that for things that'll only see occasional use, you can get something okay-ish for a great price. Or for something completely different, I used to dabble in brewing, and all of the small commercial brewers I know are really happy with their bottom price Chinese fermentation tanks.