Unfortunately there is a large prevalence of these awful cheap full suspension bikes and I think they are probably damaging the cycle industry long term.
A general lack of education among the population means that people see the sub £200 price and all the shiny springs and forks and think to themselves "wow, what a bargain, all that lovely suspension will make my ride very comfy". What the sales assistants in Halfords/Toys R Us don't tell them is that the suspension will make the bike incredibly heavy, soak up all the energy they put in to peddling and the crappy east asian build quality will mean that the bike will manage about a month at a time before having to be taken apart and rebuilt. All added up this results in people using the bike once or twice and then thinking "sod this, far too much like hard work for me" and parking the bike in the garage till it gets skipped a year or two later when they do a clear out.
I had a friend who worked in Halford's and knew a thing or two about bikes. He said that despite actually being honest with people and trying to put them off the awful things people just wouldn't believe him and thought he was just out to make commission on the more expensive bikes.