> everybody only wants to spend $0.50 and then they complain when they get $0.50 worth of widget. I don't think that's quite the case. Instead, I think the p

> everybody only wants to spend $0.50 and then they complain when they get $0.50 worth of widget. I don't think that's quite the case. Instead, I think the people complaining at receiving the $0.50 widget complain when the (now-broken) widget was in a $1000 gizmo, which used to include the $50 version before cost-optimization. It's a market for lemons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons), only with general, notionally durable goods. Build quality is opaque and liable to change without notice, whereas price is obvious.