Originally Posted by
noglider
[MENTION=21724]cyccommute[/MENTION], there are many people who prefer to pay a high price and feel they get their money's worth. In a sense, you do get what you pay for. While a person could buy 4 or 5 cheap lights and replace them as they fail, spending the same money, but some people don't want to do that. Plus there is a value in having a convenient self-contained package rather than a light with a mount and a separate battery with its own separate mount.
First, I have yet to have an Magicshine or Magicshine clone "fail". The batteries wear out but that is something that happens to Li-ion batteries. They don't last forever. On a positive note, 2S2P Li-ion batteries are cheap. But the lights themselves are rugged and basically idiot proof. That doesn't mean that I haven't gone through a lot of LED lights. I've replaced them as the technology advances.
The large problem with spending a large amount of money, especially on a light with a proprietary USB battery, is that when the technology changes as rapidly as it is changing, you are stuck with an inferior expensive light. Ask someone who paid $200 for a Niterider Minewt. When the propietary USB battery goes south, you are stuck with an expensive, inferior paperweight.
The other problem is that if you want to run multiple lights for whatever reason, it's far easier to afford 2 (or 3) $20 lights that you may replace next year with better versions, then dump $400 (or $600) in to something with a better case. The light's the same but the case is fancier.