Sometimes, I've found myself defending cheap gear to cork sniffers from time to time; and I'm guilty of a bit of cork sniffing too.
But I also have pieces of gear that were cheap--not because I found a great price on them but because they had no resale value from the moment I started using them.
it's almost like a "guilty pleasure" of guitar gear.
I have such a pedal. It's a Digitech Bad Monkey OD pedal. I could preach its virtues all day long. I think it cost me $40 new about 6 years ago. I've gigged a lot with it, practiced and jammed a lot more with it. I'd replace it if I lost it. It's not tube screamer and it's not a Rat. Got a unique tone, close to the Fender tube amp sound and yet not.
What gear do you have like that?