I can say with all honesty that nobody ever twisted my arm to attend a gun show. Years ago when my wife and I owned a shop we also worked the local gun shows, mostly promoting the shop.
My view is that every gun show has a promoter and the promoter makes or breaks a gun show. For example here in the Cleveland, Ohio suburbs a large draw show is the Berea Fairgrounds show. The show is generally a 3 building show with about 1,000 tables. Admission is $7 and there is no charge for parking. When we know the girl on the gate we normally get free admission. This show, like many has some beef jerky and junk stuff but the promoter keeps a limit on flea bay junk and also limits it to one section of one building. This makes it easy to avoid junk unless of course you want Indian Art and Beef Jerky. The $7.00 admission and free parking is reasonable and going to this show brings back memories of 25 years ago when we worked it. All of these Ohio Gun Knife and Military Shows are good shows through the same promoter. Another good show is what we call the Medina Gun Show, while run by different promoters the show has a nice blend with not too much flea market stuff. Again, the promoters do a real good job of putting on a nice show. Really good shows generally come down to the promoter with a good focus on guns and gun parts first followed by minimum flea market crap.
There are some good deals at gun shows but you have to know your stuff and look around and know how to negotiate. The best firearm deals I am afraid to say are online.
I get better deals on Ebay than at gun shows. Best deal on mags for my M&P.40 at a gun show, $40 each. On Ebay, 2 for $36, free shipping. It's still fun to go, as it's like 100+ gun shops in one space.