Too many get hung up on the "Top Shelf" argument failing to realize that most consumers out there don't give a damn and are not going to pay double or triple the price when they don't have to.
There is always going to be those that will pay a premium but most are not. It's like buying vegetables at the grocery store. They usually have a small organic section but most are buying the regular produce because it's half the price
Absolutely, and like you said, places like these forums with some hard core users are echo chambers that are not at all representative of 99+% of the cannabis users.
You might as well go to a hi-fi voodoo forum, and get away with the impression that a headphone that costs less than $1000 is pure garbage and WHY THE FUCK is everybody buying these $20 things, it's so unfair!
Or talk about wines, exotic produce, etc. Most people just want to get drunk after a long work day, they buy a $4 wine and don't pay $20.
Cannabis is not at all different. What most people don't realize is they could put a fem autoflower on their window sill in summer and harvest maybe 30g of dank weed that would last them the rest of the year. If that was more obvious to the average consumer, ever fewer people would visit the dispensaries (or the black market).