Thing is a customer is willing to pay disproportionately more for a "reliable" country of origin, brand, whatever - so you can afford to throw in better compone

Thing is a customer is willing to pay disproportionately more for a "reliable" country of origin, brand, whatever - so you can afford to throw in better components/QC on top of higher labor cost etc. Many things are this way - you don't pay premium price for a budget brand even if they end up performing the same as premium brand. Also you don't outsource production to China to get better quality, you outsource to cut cost - that always leads to worse products down the line.