I'm not saying that the cheap fixtures don't work. Of course they will and people are happy with them for now. But talk to me after two years of using them when the LEDs are dimming or burning out because of cheaper drivers or poor thermal management. Or the drivers themselves are dying or the power supplies are dying, or worse, catching fire. I know that sounds alarmist but recently I've seen a different affordable chinese product which works well, is a fraction of the price of competing european products but has power supplies that sometimes fail in scary ways.
You do get what you pay for. If you want to buy something at a lower price but have to replace it every two years that's your choice. I had a similar discussion with someone recently that was the whole Apple vs. cheaper PC one. She said that she could buy a PC laptop with the same specs as an Apple one for much less. While that's true, you pay for quality components and craftmanship. I'm currently typing this on my 6 year old Macbook Pro. It still runs like a champ espite having been very well used and dropped numerous times (to the point it has several dents and the top bezel separating from the body) etc. I don't know too many people who can say the same about their budget PC laptops.
I completely get trying to do things on a budget and I also agree that some of the high end fixtures are probably overpriced for what they are. But you generally do get what you pay for and I'm pretty sure you will see far more people still using their Vertex Illumina 5 or 6 years from now than you will their Taotronics or Pharos etc.
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