"Buy cheap, buy twice." It's a fair enough philosophy that is often quite relevant, however there is room to qualify that - especially with today's manufacturing capabilities.
Consider a 2m HDMI cable. You can get them for $3 or $30. I got a couple for less than $2 each a while back - and they've never caused me any problems whatsoever. The mechanical demands are minimal and the electrical side is adequate - because it works. Any higher standard electrical qualities add nothing to the performance (unless you're a member of the 'golden eyed' fraternity - an associate of the 'golden eared' brigade)
Something like an office chair is rather different. With significant mechanical demands you will want a better quality product that will function more reliably and for a long time. This requires better design and build quality, which naturally leads to higher prices.
Then you can have the surprises. As an example, many years ago I did some work for a mechanic - helping install LPG conversions. This required a lot of cutting of rubber hose. Because neat cuts made life so much easier, when passing by a $2 shop, I dropped in and found a cheap hose cutter - wondering how it would go. Today, it still works perfectly - and it still has the original blade. Admittedly, if I had been planning on buying a proper tool, I would have been starting at $30.
Sometimes I will buy a cheap example of a product to find out if that type of product will prove useful to me - and to gain experience in the features and problems associated with such products. This allows me to better understand what is important and to look for those attributes in a more serious purchase. Example: Many moons ago, I bought a dozen or so cheap router bits with various profiles as I had some woodwork projects in mind. I found some that I never used, others that were used occasionally and a few of them were used all the time. As each bit failed (or fell below par) I replaced it with a high quality bit - that would last far longer. Also, when I added a new bit to my collection that I knew would be given a good workout, I bought a quality one. Today, two thirds of my router bits are quality items and one third is the cheapies.
The point is this - if someone chooses to buy cheap on one type of product, it doesn't mean they will buy cheap on everything.