In my experience, mechanical pencil tips broke too easily. I've had cheap wooden pencils where it felt that the let was shattered inside which meant the sharpened tip kept falling out. That's how I felt about pretty much every mechanical pencil.
The main thing that helps with lead breakage is a mechanical pencil with a sliding nose cone/tip. Even finer lead becomes fairly reliable as long as it is protected against sideways pressure. My personal favorite is the Kuru Toga Advance 0.3mm, though a larger lead size and a model purpose-built for break-resistance would be better if tip breakage is the main concern.
About a decade ago I bought a metal mechanical pencil (rotring 800, 0.5mm). Best pencil I’ve ever owned. It will last so long I’ll leave it to my children.
Was it actually $60?
Yes something like that (around 50€)
Try the Zebra DelGuard mechanical pencil - they have a sophisticated system protection the lead, with springs and whatnot - even in 0.3 mm version, it is actually quite hard to break the tip of the lead, even intentionally.