When a budget speaker is preferred to a high end one...

Lets not forget the people who buy audio for presentation and appearance purposes. These are not really audiophiles, gearheards or luvers of music. They want other people to think or perceive they have the best possible audio system. Period. I think these people make up a slim slice of the overall pie, and they will pay a very high inflated price for speakers for that purpose.

There will always be people who equate the $$ cost of the speaker to the quality of the speaker and overlook other factors.

Also there will be people that put measurements above everything else. They will always equate good sound with good measurements.

There will always be people who think that THEY THEMSELVES are as good at deciding how to make a good speaker than speaker engineers and designers (Peter Snell, Richard Vandersteen, Omar Bose, Jim Theil, Matt Polk, etc.)

I say just buy what makes you happy and learn to live with someone who chooses a different path, a different speaker. If you really think you can't tolerate all the bad speakers in the world, just make a pair of your own.