It isn't always that simple. I had some counterfeit usb-to-serial chips that worked fine until the real manufacturer updated the windows driver and simultaneously made it hard to install old drivers. Risk is risk.
It happened both with FTDI and PL2303 chips. FTDI bricked the clones, Prolific just made it hell to use them.
I have a cable with an molded-in adapter that makes a selling point big deal on the retail packaging about using a genuine Prolific chip. :)
As I understand it, Prolific didn't just make it hell to use the clone PL2303 chips but also the older revision of their own chips which was being cloned - their newer drivers disabled both just the same. Which suggests that using any chip from Prolific is risky no matter where you source it from.
Ah, I wasn't aware of that. The CH34X was released some time after all that drama and always worked and was dirt cheap.