I can only assume people who complain about Ikea—price, assembly instructions, quality, et c.—have never experienced other flat-pack furniture, like what Wal-Ma

I can only assume people who complain about Ikea—price, assembly instructions, quality, et c.—have never experienced other flat-pack furniture, like what Wal-Mart or Target stock, which is worse on all of those measures. Or most bulky, ugly, fake-fancy big box furniture, even not flat-packed. I can only beat them on quality-per-dollar by going used, as you note—mid-century-modern used furniture is expensive (and is what a lot of Ikea stuff is designed after) but anything earlier or later is usually very cheap. Brands that consistently provide better quality for non-flat-pack furniture tend to be way more expensive than Ikea, outside the range of what most normal folks are even considering. And yeah, it's true that their cheapest tier is practically disposable, but it's hard to complain when an end table costs $20 or whatever. Of course it's not gonna last decades, at that price.