We’re living in a world where nearly everything is low quality. It’s the old Sam Vimes narrative about being poor being expensive, but it is currently challenging for people of any means to find a quality product without loads of research and expertise.
And even then, it’s subject to change as good brands get bought by someone larger or new management comes in and cuts quality to increase margins.
If I had more money to spend I'd get an M-class vac, but the cheapest one is a Festool for 560 euros. It's not often that Festool is the cheapest in a category.
(I think the M/L class system is specific to The Netherlands: https://mastertools.nl/collections/bouwstofzuiger?refinement... basically M class means it's safe to use by professionals who work with stone dust for 8 hours per day).
Can you actually list items that, on a price-adjusted level, are lower quality? Nearly everything is of higher quality and cheaper than it ever was.
Meanwhile fridges from the 1960s are still humming along fine.
The crumbly new fridge is more energy efficient by a long shot than that workhorse hold fridge - so it does depend on what you consider quality, but longevity and repairability are definitely major factors in what I consider quality.
Fridges that you see from the 1960s are still humming along fine. All the ones that broke decades ago get none of your attention. This is survivorship bias. Reliability of products like fridges has gone up immensely over the last 50 years.
I've used it for all kinds of things. I tend to reinforce it if it's load-bearing (eg I made a bracket for my router under my desk, but molded the Sugru around a screw that I put in the desk). Each pack is very small, so it'll only be enough for corners or wrapping around wires very close to the end or whatever.
Compare this with the garbage we have in today’s McMansions … and weep.
Because you can buy an newbuilt apartment in London for a million dollars and it will be absolute shit. Recently builders forgot to build balconies, forgot to lay down internet cable for a block of flats, and built and entire block wrong way round. They are worse than an average javascript app!
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/uknews/16419384/persimmon-buil...
Eg, my microwave has a vent cover on the top that tends to crack and fall off after less than 3 years. They company wants >$90 for the lightweight, simple plastic part.
I have a fridge with a long lasting LED light. The proprietary board that its mounted to failed after less than 4 years.
We've somehow managed to replace short lasting components (filament bulbs) with components that last longer (led) but fail in more costly ways. Somehow the manufacturer gets away with blaming laws (incandescent bulbs were banned, we say!) while also profiting from building things too cheaply.