Fascinating thread. Deteriorated beyond all belief, but fascinating.
I will say that another hobby of mine is machining (I have a small home machine shop). Similar debates about Chinese quality rage in machining forums too. Guess what? The Chinese are indeed learning to build decent quality stuff. Not all Chinese stuff is good quality, but some is decent and a few things are even very good. And the percentage seems to be climbing.
But back to the OP's question: I don't have a lot of experience playing with all the different brands of scopes, I'm a beginner like you. I do have a Rigol DS1052E, firmware hacked to the DS1102E. I have had it for over a year now, and it has done exactly what it is supposed to do. Rigol did have some glitches introduced by some of the firmwares they rushed out to try and prevent the hack, but they seem to have fixed those now. One can't really fault them for trying to stop the hack, and there's no excuse for rushing out the "fixes" without proper testing, but the fact that they DID eventually fix the problems eventually shows some commitment to quality and customer service.
That said, it is what it is. The screen is a bit small and the resolution is a bit pixelated. The specified sample rate is for single channel and is halved when both channels are in use. Actually, the sample rate only applies to the shorter timebases, and decreases as the timebase increases. So at 2ns, the sample rate is 1Gs, but at, say 100ns it might be only 500Ms and at 100us it drop to something like 500ks (don't quote me on the exact numbers, I'm going by memory here). However, the odd thing is that the sample rate is still halved when using the second channel, which seems a bit of a waste to me. The memory depth is similarly shared between the two channels, and the sample rate is halved again when long memory is selected. So transients are less likely to be detected when using two channels, long memory depth and low frequencies. Oh well, that's what the persistence feature is for...
Overall, I'm quite happy with it. The value for the price was exceptional and it's a perfect entry-level DSO, in my opinion and very limited experience. Both as a learning tool, to discover and understand all the potential of oscilloscopes in general, and as a tool to graphically learn and understand what is going on in a particular circuit it has been well worth the investment. I suspect that if I ever advance enough to need something with more capabilities, I would still keep the Rigol around as a back-up or utility machine. It's small size, low relative cost, versatility and light weight make it suitable for use in the field. For example, I have used it as an automotive scope trying to track down a sensor glitch. Another time, I connected one channel to a microphone and the other to the distributor points to identify and locate and a strange knock in a marine engine. I'm not sure I'd want to set a large, heavy, expensive scope on the fan shroud in the driveway or the edge of the dock on the lake!
That is not to say the others on your short list are of any less value. I am unfamiliar with them. The Rigol is getting a bit long in the tooth by a consumer electronics yardstick, so maybe there are even better deals out there now. I am only saying that I, personally, have been quite happy with the Rigol and do not regret the purchase.