There are tons of facets to this discussion, which crops up regularly between friends when we're out on shoots or fishing.
The "guns/knives are tools" argument falls at the first fence for me since you can go into any auto store and buy a cheapie socket set or one that costs fortunes, so straight off the bat there are extremes of price point to take into account.
Brand often brings with it a perceived expectation of quality which can also be horribly off the mark.
A friend of mine has a folding knife branded 'Purdy' with a Damascus blade and it's a bag of crap in terms of fit and finish. I'd put money on it having nothing to do with Purdy other than having their moniker etched onto it after it was made.
Price is absolutely no guarantee of quality....
Where knives are concerned I think one of the biggest issues is the end user's ability to sharpen and look after the knife - loads of people twist about certain knives being rubbish when, in actual fact, they simply don't understand how to look after them properly.
Example:
The previously mentioned knife made from CPM S90V is incredibly wear resistant, as are most of the Crucible steels that are 'knife grade'.
I've lost count of the number of people I've met who just didn't know how or, crucially,
when to strop/sharpen their knives and when they eventually tried to tussle with it, they blame the knife/steel/brand/maker for any difficulties experienced when sharpening.
In plain English, one of the most salient characteristics of a lot of the currently in vogue knife steels is high wear resistance. That means resistance to wear when sharpening, as well as in general use, so sharpening these steels can require a little more user input. This wear resistance is one of the greatest obstacles to overcome where most stainless and some carbon steels are concerned.
In my experience most folks are far to willing to condemn a product as rubbish when, often, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Some folks have no problem recommending high end (and equally high price) optics, rifles, trigger/barrel/rings/mounts/moderators et al. For many people it's an unrealistic goal state to aim for and, for others, they don't feel they have 'arrived' until they buy into such products.
The best (neatest) field butchery job I ever saw was done by a vet with a Swiss Army knife.
I have to work slower with a Mora than with certain other knives, because of its profile, thickness and grind. Yes, I can get the job done with one and, for the asking price, they are hard to criticise, but they are far from ideal.
If you can make it work then whatever it is is OK. Having tried lots of options over the years I have found things that make the job much easier and efficient for me, so that's what I stick with.
I can shoot straight with an out of the box gun but I'd rather shoot one with a trigger job and a few other tweaks. It doesn't have to have high end glass but I would rather mid range than entry level, if I had the luxury of choice.
Same with knives.
I prefer small, thin and sharp, and for most game processing I find anything with a blade over 3.5" a hindrance. Given the choice I would rather 3" or slightly under, but whatever works is all good
