By now, you'd think we'd have reached a minimum viable quantity of products that have been ubiquitous for so long.
When "Cheap crap" first became common 20 years ago stuff got a bit worse, but it seems to be improving.
As a final thought, I'd say at least in a store, if you have the ability to determine if something is junk by looking and touching it, you can practice that.
The plastic cover on a bad switch looks an awful lot like the one on a good switch.
Glass filled nylon seems to be somwhat reliable thought, not quite as much utter trash has a chassis made of that, at least for tools.
And sheet metal, I usually assume anyone who uses that is cutting corners or wants to appeal to old fashioned types who hate plastic no matter what.