ARRL might not represent all hams, and how their usual "Santa story" fits in a magazine "about ham radio" every year doesn't seem like a proper function either. But the FCC sometimes listens to them, the ITU sees them as our formal organizing body, and they're the best (and only) thing we've got. So it pays to join. To chide them for the policies we don't like, and to benefit from what we've got.
Like their "oh gee" field study of radio conformance. (The Big Three all pretty much passed 100%.)
As to magic brand names...We, as rubes (excuse me, I meant valued customers) sometimes never do know what the deal is. Years ago I bought "white box" 7" recording tape that looked just like the 10x more expensive 3M product. And back then, you could get real product engineers on the phone. One of them explained to me that it was in fact the EXACT same product. Except, 3M put their tape through a quality control test, and if it had more than ## dropouts per thousand feet, it got sold off as cheaper, lower quality "white box". In memory chips and ICs, the producers run qc tests to meet milspec speed and quality ratings. Once they have ## pieces that meet their milspec needs, the rest go (often unsorted) on the general market. Same thing with "white" LEDs today, they may come off the line in three color grades and three brightness grades, and you pay a premium if you want them sorted and matched.
So the brand name? Could mean "Hey, do a QC test and only ship us the radios that perform within 2% of spec." Sometimes it means the product was sorted, sometimes the product was tuned, sometimes it just means the product was tested.
SONY made a huge success of their Trinitron color TVs for many reasons. They wanted a product that would never arrive DOA, unlike cheaper sets. So the components were tested individually, then again on sub-assembly, and a third time after the TV was ready to go. Three full levels of testing. Result? A very expensive TV, but one that never arrived DOA, or at least very rarely did.
When you buy a name brand, you buy that brand's reputation, and how that reputation is made? Sometimes just isn't discussed. Sometimes, it isn't real, either. The rubes always buy the sizzle and rarely the steak.
