I have nothing against knives in $ 50.00 range. I do not buy expensive knives - but I do not set the price range for my purchases as well. It happened before - I thought I would buy knife for 40, then I saw one I liked for 50, then another one etc... I ended up with few of them (about 80 USD each) and I am quite happy.
I am sure that many people here started with inexpensive production knives and moved to much more expensive custom pieces. And I am sure they even use them.
David