Yes, the price is relatively cheap, but not as much comparing to competing products. There are stations for ~$20 that provide temperature control and even a temperature display. If something goes bad over time (e.g. heater, tip, plastic, etc), you can cheaply replace the complete handle.
Now, of course, you are comparing this to branded high quality products, not price competing ones. There it's definitely easy to guess (without having tried them) that for the money, you will get better materials and better reliability if soldering frequently. If soldering infrequently, it seems that these cheap solutions work too (I haven't tried the Yihua iron, I was just curious about how it works). Even the tips don't fail quickly on cheap irons (at really low volume hobby work) as long as they are tinned after each use, if not using the iron for more than a few minutes, the soldering iron is unplugged (then tinned).
I agree with that, if is for normal use them is a good choose opt for clones, and cheap to replace when broken.
I can say the best way to know if is good or not is by adquire and test yourself under your needs, we are talking about 17$ product so it will not break your bank and by anyway if is just garbage you put it on the bin and still you not regret because your loss is minimal. Everyday we burn money on useless things, give a chance to usefull things
![Cheesy :D](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/cheesy.gif)
YIHUA itself have more bad products than good ones but i like to give a chance to everything. Aliexpress reviews on that iron are very positive.
Also you can look at T12 Clones, they are proven to be good.
BAKON 950D another t12 clone
If your objective is portability then look at TS100, the best you can get for cheap, serious this iron is very good and put some high end stations behind, however price is a bit higher...
If you like the YIHUA iron give him a chance to shine
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EDIT: Also don't forget to test the shown temperature with the real, using a cheap meter or probe, never trust default calibration. Test for 300ºc, 350ºc, and 400ºc. If the iron deliver correct temperatures then is already a positive factor. After test for termal recovery capacity. If pass both tests is good to go.
If temperature is not real but you find a stable/fixed offset across your temperature range, then should not be a problem either. Just memorize that offset and set your temperature based on that.