Totally disagree. not all products are made equally , there is definitely better made products then others and you simply cannot deny that. Both sides have merit, and like I said there is no doubt that you can buy a 30 dollar mod and have it last a good while but another could buy that same mod at the same time and in 3 months it dies out. You talk about mods being equal as long as the chips are comparable, that's just not the case and goes much further then that. The way there attached, manor in which they are attached, wire used, quality control, it all plays into a quality piece. A place selling a 30 dollar mod is pushing those numbers out and that has a bearing on quality as well. No sense of security here on spending more money on a mod , it's merely something that has worked out from experience and doing homework on what to buy and what not to. Hey then again you (well maybe not you specifically ) can buy a 200 or 300 dollar mod and it could die in a week, I'm sure it's happened, no doubt. All I'm saying is, at least in my experiences and my wife's (she always goes for cheaper stuff) that we have seen a direct correlation in quality between cheaper China made mods and more expensive american, german, etc mods. This is just my opinion and simply wanted to give an option to the OP. I honestly didn't think or want to ruffle or hurt anyone's feelings or start any wars here.
But there is a difference in saying "I got "X" mod after some research because I like the way they do things and I think it will pan out to last longer" and "Buy only expensive mods because expensive mods last longer". I also never suggested that all devices are created equal and gave good examples of that. But price itself isn't the solo factor originally suggested. These devices aren't complicated to manufacturer. You have a logic board that is like rocket science to get right but after that it's about designing a good looking shell and input system (button placement), the rest is just basic ground and power lines running to a battery sled and atomizer connector. Really even when we talk about thin cables, it's a sign of a company penny pinching and usually has no impact on the performance of the device (regulated). So assuming a good connection (proper soldering) the major holdup on reliability is in the logic board. This is something that none of the hemo manufacturers actually do themselves.
The problem as you noted is that I or someone else could have a Hemo mod die and it doesn't mean anything because its just a bad device or bad luck and you aren't wrong. But on the other hand a person with a bad lets say Smok H-Priv, didn't get unlucky, he got what was expected with a $50 mod. Now we can turn around and take a show of hands and ask everyone how many H-privs have died. We might get 20 people to say something. If we asked the same of your Hemo (Lets call it Hemo X) we might not get any at all. But wouldn't that be the case not because they don't die, but because it's a hemo X there isn't a large enough sample.
Even if we ignore sample size there is still use case. As I commented before A guy with an Eleaf isn't going to treat his Eleaf any where as nice as the guy with the $1200 Hemo X. In terms of problems who is going to get ...... easier the guy with Eleaf or the guy with the Hemo if they act up. Surprisingly the guy with the Eleaf why. By admitting to themselves that the Hemo X acted up they would reflect on the money they spent on it where as the Eleaf person has no reason to miss represent his experience with the device because he can pick up a different product relatively cheap. Also along the same lines a forum can give these users where there are many of them the opportunity to realize that this might be a bigger issue. If you have a 1 of 20 Hemo and no one is saying anything, people don't want to admit that they managed to kill or break this unique and expensive device when no one else has (outside the obvious this completely fell apart in my hands stories).
You see this in the car markets all the time. Satisfaction levels on brands with numerous issues. Take Mercedes or BMW. The perception and price of the car get a different type of buyer than a chevy. Both actually are middle of the road or lower in repairs per car. But owner satisfaction and repeat buying they have some of the highest numbers. When a Mercedes' stereo goes out, its minor annoyance to have on vehicle this good. But on a chevy cruze the owner would go ballistic. But honestly the Cruze is probably the one that will make it to 200k miles. Or keeping it in the family. One of the best rated cars by owners even above BMW and Merc is Buick. These cars use the same factories, the same workers, and use 80-90% the same parts as their chevy counterparts. But between the market the cars sell to, the perception of the brand itself, and how the owners drive the car and treat the issues they have with it. Nearly the same car will have an astronomically higher rating.
So I am not saying you can't get a well built, nearly indestructible hemo. Or that by and large that Hemo's aren't better than devices a lot of people purchase. But the sample size is so low, the price so high, the information from users so low, the human aspect of users, the changes in use case, and the fact that the one most important part is actually shared with the less expensive devices that a blanket statement that money equals reliability just plainly isn't true. Even if some of the information seems to show that information it's missing one vital aspect and that is Sample size. It prevents the previous statement from being factual even if anecdotal evidence says otherwise. Call it failures per million puffs or something like that. There just wouldn't be enough puffs on one side to hit the million puffs per failure on the other.
Sorry if it seems like you ruffled my feathers, you didn't. It just hits on a point that I see in every market and every niche. It can lead to elitism activity and honestly Vaping is full of that douchebaggery anyways. But I thought it was a nice opportunity to give insight or at least engage on the topic.
That's how I look at it anyways.
