Not always. It's about shopping wisely. I mean, really looking in bargain basements or consignment shops can uncover gems or at least very functional stuff.As ever, the axiom holds: pay peanuts, get monkeys. As in, if you pay for bargain basement bare bones quality, that's *all* you can expect. You might find the unicorn that'll be better but you can't expect that.
Cheap as chips is usually not where you go if you want quality.