It depends really. What do you consider lower-end? Here in the states in the 70's you could buy bicycles at a variety of price points. For around $75 or at the time you could buy a really awful quality bike at a department store or autoparts store. For around $100 you could buy a Schwin Varsity which was a nice solid, reliable bike but very heavy. For around $125 you could get an entry level European model from a bike shop. None of those bikes would have chrome. For around $145 you could buy a European model like a Peugeot UO8 that would have a chrome crown and fork ends. Then for $175 or so you could buy European bike, usually Italian, with chrome lugs, fork crown, fork ends, and rear dropouts and lower stays. All of those bikes would have straight gauge, high-tensile steel frames (or worse) and at best Simplex Prestige or Campagnolo Valentino derailleurs. Not "high-end" bikes for sure though perhaps you could call the $175 bike mid-range. Above $200 you could get into 531 or Columbus frames and better components. Those bikes usually had chrome. By the 80's there were changes in styling and chrome became far less common. Also there were new types of heat treated steel that could not be chromed so even some really high-end bikes did not have chrome.

So to make that long story short, I don't the presence or lack of chrome is a good indicator of quality one way or the other.