Are you suggesting there is no middle ground and that simply knowing if a USB-C cable is a USB C cable or a fake one can't be done with a cheap tester?
Sadly yes.
Like many people on that thread concluded:
The best "middle ground" thing you can do is pay a premium to buy your cables from reputable manufacturers.
A $40 toy won't tell you if the marker chips it has just read are fake / counterfeit.
You need the expensive kit for that.
We get it. A cheap tester will not tell me if a cable from a dodgy supplier is counterfeit. It will tell me what the capabilities are of the dozens of assorted cables I own from reputable manufacturers, which is otherwise difficult if not impossible to discern.
What the chip reports is itself inherently useful information, especially if you have cables from reliable manufacturers.
Its not a viewpoint "man", it is a FACT.
There are people here actively using the term "it verifies" in relation to their $40 toy they bought on Amazon, they absolutely need to be corrected firmly.
A $40 toy DOES NOT "verify" anything it (a) Does a DC continuity test (b) Reads the chips on the cable. NOTHING ELSE.
People here trying to pretend it does more than a+b need a reality check.