To give a couple of examples. The office was kitted out with poor monitors - cheapest Dell sold. Some people bought their own but most people were fine with them - they're just monitors and they're 'fine'. Then a small group were rewarded with 'premium monitors' as a prize for some internal competition - and this did cause annoyance, as it recognized that the company knew it was being cheap.
Second example. "We're getting new chairs!" Supplier dropped off half-a-dozen different models for us to try out and then we collectively chose our favourite. Except we couldn't have it, as it was too expensive, and we got the "second choice". Now that second choice was amazing compared to what they were replacing. An office full of premium ergonomic chairs cost the company a small fortune - but decision was tainted with cheapness. We weren't worth the chair we'd chosen. If they'd just pulled the chairs they couldn't afford from the competition, it would have cost the same and made us happy.