But I'm not capable of spending more for a better product. All I can do is spend more for a more expensive product and hope it's better. Products are contained (or bought online) and untestable; they're too expensive to experiment with. Having had both an original product and a warranty replacement a year or so later, I can attest that exactly the same product can vary in quality so a review is of no consequence.
When I try to purchase a widget, I can see two products: one in expensive looking packaging, and one where someone just put in some text on Word. One of them costs $25 and the other costs $2.50. It's entirely possible than the $25 will last twenty times as long as the $2.50 product and use a quarter of the energy, so that the resulting cost may even be in favor of the $25 widget.
But I can't make that judgement. It's impossible. To me, it looks the same as if the expensive one has just spent $2.50/product extra on marketing budget so they can pocket an extra $20.
I would spend a little extra for better quality that lasts longer and saves me on my energy bill. But the producers are not subject to me; they hide their information and spend on things (like CEO severance pay) that are not in my interest.
So when I go to the shop, I make the wrong decision every time, because I have no capacity to make the right decision. The product is kept from me; I can either purchase and discover if it perhaps sucks, or not purchase. Those are my choices. I don't have a real choice.