You Get What You Pay For In most all things In Life..
My 2010 Mustang, I feel I paid a premium for that car, I wanted the feel of Old school,
I wanted and got Posi trac, Low CG, Wide wheel track, Great Handling, Fantastic Shaker Stereo system,
Leather Interior,,Pony Package
I am not a economy car person, no little puddle jumpers for me, I found out they cost just as much as my Stang...
Ride terrible, sound terrible, look like a death box (So Flimsy)
$25,000 for a gutless Four Cylinder Honda or Toyota,, No thanks, Got my Mustang for less than that...
Same goes for my Bikes, I may not need the obvious performance benefits of a $2,000 Gravel bike or my $2700 mountain bike but I sure do enjoy every penny of that performance.
I consider spending that much money on a few bikes a smart move. They are my Hobby, my passion, and a ticket to my good health and sanity.
I've owned low end bikes and they get the job done In most cases... But the feel,,, the components,, I'm sorry, I have now had far better, I just couldn't ride them anymore...
One Example:
I was happy with my noisy chain throwing rattling drive train on my $600 mountain bike, then I moved up to SLX gear and was absolutely amazed at the performance gains.
Then I made the next jump,,,,,
I am now riding Shimano M8000 XT and 105 components on my bikes, The precision, the smoothness, the speed of these systems, Oh my~
I must be very very careful to never ever ride better components ! Or,, I may lust after them~~