As someone who owns one bike with a Chris King NoThreadSet, and another with a Cane Creek 110, I'm probably not the target audience for OP's diatribe... but, in fairness, those were the stock headsets offered by the builders who made those frames, so I wasn't going to quibble over a few bucks or try to second-guess the framebuilder when it came to non-a la carte component choices.

The one time I've ever spent money on (just) a headset, it was a VeloOrange model, cost me $36. It worked. :::shrugs:::
Didn't look or feel as nice as the Chris King or the Cane Creek, but the bike I put it on was a 40-year-old Bridgestone so who cares?