I think "Made in China" is being labeled as cheap junk just like "made in Japan" was decades ago. Back in the day, you could get higher quality stuff by buying a kit.
It's difficult to judge quality and reliability, but if you build it yourself, the quality is part designer and part you.
Now, we have other issues at play:
1) Manufacturer's won't supply service data
2) Once a manufacturer's window of support ends, it may be landfill time. This includes Agilent, Keithley and others.
3) Parts are not generic anymore. Just add a microcontroller and you have a custom, one of part.
The support ends when the warrant is up. With profressional instruments, it's not uncommon to have to pay 1/2 the cost of the instrument for a fixed repair and you get annoyed when it is something like a broken knob or battery door. Fluke wan't you to send in an instrument for the full repair price to replace a 9V battery door on the Intellitone LAN toner system. That males it like a $70 battery door. What's up with that?
Heck, I get annoyed when you want to replace a knocker, a door closer or something simple and the screws don't line up, so you end up replacing the door or painting a room etc. all because of a $2.00 part. One of the more recent ones, was a mirror clips for a plate mirror hanging on a door. I order for them to work on a hollow door, you have to use a wall anchor for at least the bottom two holders. The ones at the bottom worked fine. The side ones didn't. They are off by about 3/16" of an inch. Fortunately when installed, they caused the mirror to wiggle. A piece of stained Balsa wood worked wonders.