I just bought a 160 length crank, which used a different bb standard and ring standard so it cost me about $700 at the end of the day. Of course it works better. It cost a lot. I’m joking but that kind of thinking is a factor sometimes. How many butt ugly overly large homes are there that use expensive cladding and materials that are aesthetically hideous. We all to an extent judge things by cost. Must be good it was expensive. Similarly people justify cheapness a similar way. People will buy that off brand thing for less than half of a known brand but claim it’s nearly as good.
We allow ourselves to be convinced that wide ratio cassettes must be better. Even if that ten cog only sees a chain when we set the limit screws and adjust it. Range is an easy metric to sell. It has more. More is more better. For Shore riding a 12 speed that he a 12 or 13 high would get used a heck of lot more. And if one could use more of the 12 cogs we’d get longer life out of the thing. Spread the wear. I kind of miss the days of 5 and 6 speed freewheels and cog boards where we would mix and make our own ratios. No one misses freewheels and bent axles though. No one misses friction shifting. I’ll bet not too many people could tell the difference between a boost and non boost wheel set. You could tell a badly built wheel or mushy aluminum rimmed wheel from something better.