well, cycling boils down to turning the pedals. The easier it is to shift, the better.

I just remembered what the cheap Huret was like, what a disaster. I replaced a lot of those and a lot of simplex RD with Shimano Eagle. It was $10 and shifted sooooo much better. A Suntour was twice as much, and shifted nicely onto 34 tooth cog. I almost never saw a Valentino, I don't remember ever working on a bike with one.