That's how you get tourists with sweatpants and fanny packs outside the Florence Duomo.
Semi-formal and formal wear are practically the antithesis of functional and comfortable.
Personally, I have been making an effort to dress up a step or two, but I have to balance this against carrying more changes of clothes for my various activities outside of work.
Solve for `x < 20`.
Also, you could just be averse to a perceived waste of money, even if you could afford it (my case).
It requires three layers when often one is more than sufficient. It comes with a noose that fits tightly around my neck. It comes with shoes that have no grip. To keep the cuffs just-so, one wears tight bands just below the bicep. The pockets are easily distended and thus barely useable (I miss the 80s, when a distended suit pocket was the sign of that most ugly of status symbols, the mobile 'phone). Easily smutted, one must carry an umbrella or yet another layer to protect it from the rain.
Still, it pays well...
You're certainly right though, quality material and a cut that fits you well is fantastic. I have a few nice polos that I got tailored as an experiment, and they are now some of my favorite shirts. I would have more tailored, but it's $20 a pop and that's only if the shirt already fits me fairly well- which most shirts don't.
It's a question of construction decisions, not quality. For example, what fabric does it use? My denim jeans hold up to falls, rock, and dirt much better than light cotton slacks. What is the stitching pattern? Are there reinforcements? That sort of thing.
if your body changes, it's no longer going to fit.
Yup, I've been running into that problem. Thankfully the "problem" is that my biceps are stretching my sleeves, so I can feel good about said "problem".
Being rough on clothes is another matter altogether though.
Instead, the ideal seems to be to tread a fine line between casual wear and formal wear. Properly fitted clothing is important here- a suit is too formal, loose jeans a bit sloppy, but dark jeans that are tailored to fit are perfect.
This makes shopping in the women's section very difficult- I usually find casual-wear for women a bit inappropriate for work (clothing is often too sheer and unlined, too clingy, or necklines too low), and clothing marketed as office-wear would make most assume I was a secretary or in advertising/human resources/ect. A mixture seems to work well. Rather than dressing up casual clothing, I find more success dressing down nicer pieces. For example, a nice dress with a denim jacket or a silk blouse with jeans and flats.
My male friends seem to have a similar problem shopping, in which clothes that are made for casual wear are more casual than they would like, but then there is a huge gap from casual to much too formal. Men's clothing doesn't have the problem of many causal clothes being too revealing, but there is also quite a bit less variety available.
TLDR: Ramble about trying to find appropriate software developer wardrobe that has nothing to do with the above comment. Sorry.