Spending more guarantees nothing. I personally have bought seeds across the price spectrum and have rarely been impressed by the so called top brands. An example, I have bought at least 10 brands of Northern Lights I apid as much as $16.00 per seed ( Sensi ) to as little as $1.50. The 2 best of the ten were Female seeds which were $6.00 a seed and Linda Seeds $1.50. I've tried both auto and photos across brands. The only one so far that impressed me was Female Seeds NL auto. The Linda's I haven't tried yet, waiting for them to finish. The best new strain I've tried so far that is impressive is Mendicino 2020's Trizzlers. I've not even smoked it yet but the smell is unreal and I'm betting it's a winner. No they are not cheap seeds, but exceptions like this are rare.
No, paying a lot for seeds or for clones guarantees you nothing, in fact some of the worst seeds I've had came from a company who's strains as a whole, that I've tried were quite good! The bad ones weren't just bad, they were garbage!
The advantage of cheap seeds are they make pheno hunting in photos easy. I can grow 10o to pheno hunt with for what it could cost to hunt through 10 high priced seeds.
Commercially, yes, i'd likely go with strains from the higher price bracket, simply because you don't have time for pheno hunting unless your breeding your own. And that also doesn't mean a thing, breeding a quality cultivar takes time. Too many of the so called top shelf new strains are just F1 pollen chucking results.
even then, the "best" is very, very subjective. rarely will two people agree on what make a great strain for them.
So when I find a seed that is worth $20 or $30 ( a few even more! NOT me! ) each I'll post about it for sure. For now, I'm thoroughly unimpressed and not pissing my money away hoping to find an outstanding pheno at $20 or more a pop! And over 50 years, I've smoked a few spectacular strains, however, that is VERY few. Yep, there are now thousands of cultivars, and I promise you that most of them are bunk. Over the last 7 years I've grown over 200 strains ( got to stop using that word, it's cultivar not strain ) and I've found less than 10 i'd grow again. And this across a broad price range.
Lastly, the lower price seeds give personal growers a chance to explore multiple strains. Find something you really like? Then try that cultivar from other companies and see how they compare and buy the ones you like best. The ONLY way to know what's "best" for you is to compare buds.
No. Cheap seeds are not worth it. Spend your entire years seed budget on the very best genetics money can buy. Maybe 2 packs. Keep 2 mothers take cuttings. Reverse a branch. Make seeds. Cross the 2 strains you buy. Plant a bunch in solo cups. Do a pheno hunt. At least you will have a lifetime supply of fire. At most you find a one in a thousand motherfucker of a pheno. FUCK CHEAP SEEDS. My humble opinion.