The thing is, it's 2023, we all "know" that every company's product get made in the same factory and there's just a fork at the end of the conveyor where they get different branding slapped on.

So the gamble is that UCNN is sourced out of the exact same factory as the product/brand you actually want. It's the the evolution of the Warby Parker model.

Just bought a wood bed frame online. 5 vendors with nearly the exact same frame, all priced within $50 of each other. How does one choose? Does it matter?

It’s a great signal that you are buying from the wrong middleman. Seek out the source for a 50% discount. Usually that source is on AliExpress/Alibaba.

It's more like they flood the results so you literally can't find the quality product unless you know the brand name to search for. I can't be an expert in every vertical, so either I go to some sort of trusted review platform like Wirecutter, or I give up and buy whatever I can find on Amazon return decent reviews and hope for the best.

I believe it might [0] have to do with Amazon offering preferential treatment, under a program called Brand Registry, to Chinese exporters if they register a name--any name--with the USPTO.

[0] https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-134/fanciful-failures...