My own experience with department store bikes has indeed not been bad - the one I had in college in after, and the used one I picked up recently for a relative.

But I don't discount the reports of trouble from others, or that the components are often flimsy and non-standard. Stopped on a trail once to try to help someone put her front brake back together and was a bit frustrated how finicky and flexy the parts were.

And there is a general reality that coincident with the switch to importing just about everything, we've seen a switch from solid basics to silly features. I can remember in some other contexts as a teenager being frustrated that the "name brands" only offered extras I coveted in the mid to high tier models, while some of the lesser known imports that were coming on the market offered them by default in their magazine adds. It was only when I finally saw some of those products in person that it became clear how crummy they were in terms of their capability to fill the basic need. And I've seen that again and again - the established brand comes with 3 attachments 1 of which might actually be useful, the budget new arrival has 20 attachments all odd and all likely to break on the first or second attempt at use.