This is not as irrational as it sounds. In our own personal lives, we make decisions like this. As an example, I haven't in recent memory visited a ultra-cheap

This is not as irrational as it sounds. In our own personal lives, we make decisions like this. As an example, I haven't in recent memory visited a ultra-cheap ethnic restaurant (though I go to more expensive places), because I am worried about their health standards. I am using price as a signal of quality - which is reasonable in a perfectly competitive market, but alas, if a lot of people act like me, the "perfectly competitive market" assumption may not hold. In other words, this "price signals quality" thesis itself depends on people evaluating quality first, and then the market sorts itself out based on quality. But if people start acting en masse on the price-signals-quality assumption, it stops signaling quality. So this is a perpetual tension (or a perpetual self-referential loop!) that means there are going to be overlooked bargains in the market. In case of restaurants, I am just not that motivated to find them. I can imagine enterprises feeling that way about IT.