There are tons of cameras out there these days that aren't crap, though they are a bit more expensive than the cheap kits you buy from Amazon or Costco. Most of the non-Chinese manufacturers and the largest Chinese manufacturers have good quality cameras depending on the features you want. Good cameras are generally compatible with ONVIF, so they should be compatible with a wide variety of VMS software.
This isn't an easy to answer question - I'd answer differently depending on if you want cameras from home vs. business purposes and differently if you want local vs. cloud storage.
Fair. Just looking for something with decently secure firmware that I can permanently install outside, store locally on a NAS, and live stream remotely if I choose to. It's just kind of difficult to get a clear option because the market is saturated with junk.
Homeboy cameras are great. Can be placed anywhere without a cord (at the cost of having to charge them every couple months or so). Edit: but as another comment pointed out it depends on your needs. I don't want to constantly stream or monitor, I just want something that only starts recording when it senses motion, and only does so I'm not home, and immediately uploads the video to my dropbox.