My method for making >$100 purchases is open up Consumer Reports, look at the top 3 ratings, and often the first will be some I'm sure very good product at $1200, and the second-best will be $500, so I buy the second-best rated of everything.
Like a Peloton is really good, yeah, but there's probably a $1000 treadmill that's pretty good, or Traeger makes great if overpriced pellet grills, but there's definitely some cheaper options that will smoke your meat fine if you don't need wifi and bluetooth for your smoker. And then sometimes the expensive products are really terrible quality with an aura of mystique about then (looking at you, Molekule air purifier) and Consumer Reports is willing to call these snake oil salesmen companies.
Like a Peloton is really good, yeah, but there's probably a $1000 treadmill that's pretty good, or Traeger makes great if overpriced pellet grills, but there's definitely some cheaper options that will smoke your meat fine if you don't need wifi and bluetooth for your smoker. And then sometimes the expensive products are really terrible quality with an aura of mystique about then (looking at you, Molekule air purifier) and Consumer Reports is willing to call these snake oil salesmen companies.
I don't trust any other reviews, though.