I definitely agree that you don't have to buy the most expensive guitar to sound good. When I went to pick out my first guitar I went to one of the big music stores and brought a friend who had been playing for a while. I really didn't know if guitar was going to be for me or not so I went in with a tiny budget of $100. In my mind I said I would go as high as $300 but really wanted to stay at my original $100.
The clerk had a $300 Takamine solid top acoustic on the counter that had just been set up. I told him my budget and that I'd go a little higher if I found a good fit. He proceeded to pull several $100 models off the shelf and played the same riff on each of them so I could hear the differences. Out of curiousity I asked about the $300 guitar on the counter. He played the same riff as on the cheaper guitars and almost immediately I liked the sound better.
After noticing the poorer action on the cheaper guitars (how hard you have to press the strings to hit the frets) this one felt much easier on my fingers. These two factors were the biggest influence on me and I ended up spending my max amount of $300.
Since then 5 years later I'll go in and noodle on guitars that are 2x the $300 I spent and there's barely a difference. I've since dropped money on several other guitars but this one has been my go-to ever since.
Good article! Thank you