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In my shop, the only thing I regret buying the super-cheap model of is a bandsaw. It's just so crappy as to not even be particularly useful for doing bandsaw-type work. But I have so many other cheap tools going strong, the strategy is definitely paying off in aggregate.

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Low torque? Curious what makes a crappy bandsaw crappy.

And yup! That was the math: (cost of cheap things) * (total number of things) - (cost to rebuy) * (% of things you end up rebuying) << (cost of mid-range things) * (total number of things)

Low horsepower, poor blade tension control, low clearance, generally made of super low quality steel that is prone to deformation.

Low rigidity in shop tools leads to sadness. Even cutting thin pieces of sheetmetal can be miserable if the blade doesn't stay straight.

Sticking with wood or plastic on cheap saws/drills/mills can be ok, but really limits the kinds of things you can fix.

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