My current preference is tube amps. In my price range if I bought new, I suspect my best value would be in a Chinese amp based on previous experience and what I see out there. The manufacturers I would want to choose from would be less than the U.S. selection though.
America is great for innovation, but if you can't see that China is on the rise as the dominant and growing country/empire in the world, I think you're in denial. China cannot currently make my plant's aerospace parts, but they will get there.
Different countries have different cultures, different financial and manufacturing goals, and different tastes. I was reading on distributor's site where they warned about the different sound signature of high end Chinese speakers designed for Chinese consumers that may not meet western expectations.
I lived in Germany, loved it, and loved the German people. As a manufacturer using German equipment, I hate German equipment. There is certain equipment where Germany is the only or one of the few choices and nothing available from innovative U.S. Despite what you may hear about German precision stereotype, German equipment is overcomplicated, not reliable, not well supported especially not providing information to their American distributors, and difficult to maintain. The Germans are slow to respond to issues if they do at all and are very arrogant. They don't believe complaints from the American arm of their company let alone their customers.
Luckily I've only had experience with a little French equipment. Similar to German equipment issues except not over-engineered, zero customer support, and extremely unreliable.
I bring up non-audio examples because the supposed best or not harshly judged countries also make crap.
As China continues to build infrastructure and improve technology, it will dominate more and more markets. One of my favorite amps still is a Chinese built hand wired beauty. I would still have it if it didn't weigh 115 lbs and had to be flipped to bias tubes. I have a great Japan built amp now, but still miss the China built one.
There is great American gear, but also manufacturers that provide decent gear at an overblown price that spend more money on marketing than their products. This really applies to manufacturers worldwide though. As said previously or in other words, I don't think innovation is key with a lot of products versus maturity of the company, design team, product line, and customer base as far as providing the highest quality products. Innovative to me is the guy in his basement that figures out a $20 upgrade to a $200 DAC that makes it sound like $500. Insanely priced products referenced in OP are either warranted because of the years and cost to develop them, or they are overpriced at price enough consumers are willing to accept or both. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see a lot of innovative products. If anything most consumers shy away from innovative designs. Maybe the thought of innovation doesn't make as much sense to me as just good design is being referenced.
All the U.K. gear I've had has been high end to me, so low-mid fi here. It's all been of high quality and I enjoy what I've heard of British sound signature. Not sure about how innovative it is.
Thinking about tubes, what does it matter who's best if the U.S. and U.K. don't make tubes any more? Better to start designing amps around the tubes available instead of having to do tube rolling to tubes that cost as much or more than the amp or are no longer available. I have heard very good Chinese tubes and am hopeful for continued improvement with the lack of other countries/manufacturers.