What a strange world we live in. We are arguing about somebody's own experience, preference and opinion. It's their truth no matter how much we agree or disagree. Whilst being a fairly new addition to the watch world I have ridden and owned an array of different motorcycles varying in style, performance and price.
Honestly, I just love riding a motorcycle despite people always having an opinion on any particular model Ive owned, most of the time not even having owned said make let alone a particular model.
When I owned a Harley many people said they are unreliable(mine was), outdated and even vulgar. When I rode a triumph people said not really a triumph and over priced. When I dared to be an early adopter of the new Royal Enfield models a few years ago people said crazy stuff like "it will fall apart as you ride", it's made in India like that's an implication of it's quality although their factory is to iso standards. I've loved almost all of the bikes I own for different reasons and had very different experiences to others on identical or similar machines.
My long winded point is this, I find the watch world to be very similar. People tend to form tribes due to trends, tradition and what experience their friends family or themselves have encountered or even heard about through many Chinese whispers. I came from a background with little money and certainly no luxuries. It took me many years of work and savings to be in a position that I can buy a few nice things for myself and my family. It doesn't matter what someone finds luxury or amazing as the next person will often find it over priced or just a plain disappointment etc. We move on and try something else or learn to live something we don't always see the value in immediately on purchase but end up loving.
In answer to the original title of the thread, I believe it's yes and no. Overall quality and prestige, of course not. Value for money and availability, absolutely. We can carry on like this all day. At the end of the day it's your opinion, your experience and your money. If you think one thing is better than another and someone else doesn't, surely that's what drives all the wonderful array of watches available to us.
Sorry, didn't mean to write an essay, I've just seen this happen many times before across many genres with no correct answer.
Thanks
Pat