i work on the best you can afford theory..
unless you fish hard & a lot i doubt the average fisho would pick the difference between a top end & a middle of the road outfit. My daughter has had a Shimano spin outfit for about 4 years, cost the princely sum of $57 on sale. It's looked after & for general estuary use it performs faultlessly, the drag only has one washer in it so it gets a bit jerky if a fish starts to take too much line, but still not a worry if the drag it set to suit. the rod is a little clear tipped thing thats a bit soft & floppy, again it does the job well. I still use a couple of 25 yo shakespeare & diawa reels which had the washers replaced with oil soaked leather, while they are a bit heavier (all metal) & not as smooth as newer ones, they will still do the job just as well as newer ones.
I personally feel a lot of people are caught up in the marketing of the 'Name' product & spend way more than they need to just so they can be one of the 'gang' & say" i have a 4-6kg youbeaut floppycastor" too..."with matching reel" my 2cents..