There are categories that I'll generally try to avoid buying on Aliexpress (stuff that has a higher risk of being harmful if bad/toxic, e.g. anything in contact

There are categories that I'll generally try to avoid buying on Aliexpress (stuff that has a higher risk of being harmful if bad/toxic, e.g. anything in contact with hot food or extended contact with skin), but for small gadgets or tools, there doesn't seem to be a viable alternative. I can buy the same crap resold at 3x the price (sometimes even with the same slow shipping) with almost zero additional quality control, but that's just buying from Aliexpress with extra steps (and cost). I can try to get something from a local seller (not necessarily locally made), but I'll have 1/10th of the selection with the price often being 5-10x plus local shipping that costs more than the Aliexpress product with shipping included. Sure, it's cheaply made, and sure, some of it breaks within a month. But most of the stuff is actually engineered correctly: It's exactly good enough. Just very very barely good enough, but good enough.