A very valid question, and something I have wondered myself. I've always felt that Victorinox is a knife company that sets a standard that I use to compare other brands. Fit and finish out of the box is most certainly running a much higher percentage of perfect knives than other brands. The smooth function of the blades is better than most, with no thumb nail breaking springs, but very good walk and talk. Switzerland is a modern nation, not some third world dollar a day labor pool. They manage to assemble a knife with at least 4 blades/tools almost perfect, ship them all the way over here, and still sell them for less than a domestic product with less even out of the box quality control.
I think it all starts with perfect machining of the parts. Looking down in a Vic, all parts seem to be finished better, with a very high finish on backsprings, blade tangs. The better made the individual parts, the better the finished product when it's all together. Victorinox uses some of the most modern high speed CNC machining centers, while U.S. companies are going out of business with older obsolete machines because they were too cheap to spend money on better stuff. When Schrade went out a few years ago, the pictures of the machines being hauled out of there were a statement in itself. Old mills and lathes that belonged in another era. I was a machinist by trade, and I know old worn out of date machines when I see them. Same for Camillus. It's a very competitive industry, and if you don't spend the money on the latest production machining, you're going to fall behind. Victorinox has the most modern cutlery production factory in the world. They spit out more knives in a month, than most of the U.S. companies do in a year. You can't run at Indy with a 5 year old car, and you can't make lots of perfect knives with 10 year old machines, let alone 20 year old ones. The company I worked for, got rid of all our mills and lathes every 5 years and bought new ones. Being a defense contractor, tight specs had to be held, and machines used everyday wear out. Plus the new ones had higher spindle speeds, better design. Stuff gets better and you have to keep up.
Looking at the 1950's era pocket knives I've had, this kind of quality used to be standard. The old Case knives from the 40's and 50's were better than modern ones, although I think Case has gotten way better in the last few years. I have seen some perfect chestnut bone Case's that rivaled the old ones.
If you really want to try a nice pocket knife, get a Victorinox pioneer settler. It's on the soldier frame, but it's a slim two blade pen knife layout. Very trim and flat in the pocket, great fit and finish, and like all the other Vic alox, built like a tank.
Carl.
It was sweet.
You overpaid...I bought a couple for $17 including shipping. 
