It's hard to say without seeing the bikes, but I'd bet the Huffy would have much inferior, unsealed bearings in the moving parts. Try removing the wheels and see how smoothly they spin without having any play in the axles, and try the crank spindles, headsets, pedals, etc.

Despite the oft-repeated story of the old guy and his $60 bike, I can point to other journals of tourists with department store bikes that had frequent, critical equipment failures due to the poor quality of various parts. Maybe the guy with the $60 bike had no trouble and rode the whole way. Maybe he rode 5 miles and hitchhiked the rest of the way each day (I've met BS artists like that on tour). I'm not accusing him of that, but a cheap bike will tend to give you more grief.