As it stands, I'm likely going to be buying Ikea-produced furniture next year because I need to furnish an apartment cheaply, and I will only be keeping it for a couple years. I don't have the money or the means to buy furniture that will last me a long time at this point...but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about what I am doing. I still am aiming to buy as little furniture as is necessary, and avoiding anything I can do without or simply don't need.
Yes, the idea is simplistic, but that is the point: if you can reduce and purchase quality then you should, and if you can't, at least have an awareness (and perhaps simplify another aspect of your life). I'm at a point where I can do both, but understandably, not everyone can do that.
It's all about reducing as much as you can, within your current circumstances. I'm not trying to say that you need to buy that $100 knife now, but in that case, perhaps you could do with one or two less forks (this isn't a literal example, mind you). Less waste and less worry, without entirely sacrificing comfort.
I have had the same $10 Wal-Mart cooking knife for a few years now. I'm sure it won't last more than a few more years. However, I bought it in poverty, and it will last me through poverty until I am making good money. Then I will buy a nice knife. There is nothing wrong with that.
Grad school is hard. It requires a lot of my time. A sewing kit is not cheap, and sewing is time-expensive. It is probably a net positive for me to throw out socks with holes in them, even if they cost me a few extra dollars over the course of three or four years.
I understand the urge to simplify. This is the land of Henry David Thoreau, after all. But sometimes it carries an assumed moral tone without justification. People feel it's right and don't question it. If nobody bought from Wal-Mart, people would have a lot less stuff. Some of that stuff is valuable, it saves people time and makes them more comfortable. Often cheap stuff is bridging a gap for folks caught in hard times. There is no need to moralize against them.