It seems to be common for people to feel that if you cannot afford something then it cannot be worth the price and anyone that has enough money to afford it is a fool or not very smart. Which of course is not true. While you can add nearly unlimited labor to improve the sound of budget products to far beyond their normal capability (think interconnects, room treatments etc.), but if you take into account personal effort, high end generally products perform in proportion to their price.

I've yet to encounter the viewpoint expressed in the first sentence.

Much depends on how the pricing is done. If done according to a formula, its likely it will be less expensive with the same or better performance. Technics has long had examples of this with their turntables.

When priced according to what the market will bear the price tends to be higher of course. And the performance may or may not be better. This has nothing to do with audio; its true of nearly any high end industry.

More expensive = better?

No. More expensive = more expensive. Better? - that has to do with the intent of the manufacturer and far less to do with price. If they are making something expensive to make money, its likely it will be mediocre.

There is something called the Veblen Effect which says that there is a perception that because something is more expensive that it must also have more value- the point of the Veblen Effect as a phenomena is simply to point out that the perception isn’t based in reality.

Better is when its better, not just if its more expensive.