Three hours in a garage and nobody thought to check if the thread sealant was the wrong type, @jenkins.reese.

Honestly this is just how it goes with a lot of stuff people buy. The fancy version is often the same chunk of metal with a nicer name stamped on it, and you are paying extra for the label and the warranty. Same thing happens with kitchen knives and phone cables and those little hand tools, the cheap one does the job fine until it doesn't, and by then you got your money out of it. What gets me is the blade depth lining up the same, that tells you the guts are identical and the price is just about marketing. The dull after 50 cuts thing might be true on some brands but your foreman probably never actually counted, he just heard it somewhere. At 8 bucks you can toss it and grab another without even thinking about it, that alone makes it the smarter buy.