There are good reasons to pay more:
1. Quality control. While any company can slip up and release a clinker, the odds are in your favor when you generally pay more.
2. Service. When you have a problem, the company takes care of you or is long out of business or won’t give you the time of day.
3. Longevity. Some guns are good for thousands and thousands of rounds, some are wearing and stretching after a couple of boxes of ammunition.
4. Parts. Will you be able to get parts in 15 years? 50?
5. Fit and finish. Some are works of art right out of the box. Nicest factory gun I’ve owned was a Freedom Arms revolver, as good as my custom. I like my Rugers because I am handy and have learned how to polish and fit and smooth them with many hours of hand work I enjoy to something better than what one paid for it. My old H&R wasn’t worth redoing the wood grips, let alone replying.
Now then, what is your free time worth to you? What’s it worth in not having weeks of frustrating interactions on the phone to get your gun fixed?
I’ve looked at those Rock Island revolvers and wondered if it might not be fun to get one, tear it down, polish and tune it up, build it back up. But then, even though I am retired and enjoy home gunsmooshing, it’s more fun and profitable to start with a better foundation.
The problem I have with the original post isn’t that the rock island is a good value, it’s that one won’t mind if a criminal steals it out of the truck. Now we have an armed criminal.
If all a fella can afford is a couple hundred bucks, I bet it’s a great revolver for them.
When a fella can afford $6,000 for a krieghoff or a custom revolver, they are supporting skilled workers. Money is like manure- you gotta spread it around for stuff to grow.
Finally on this ramble, there are inexpensive guns with excellent steel that are well worth spending time and effort to smooth out. Norinco .45s, for example.
How is the metallurgy on the Rock Island?