Watch how many "bargain" versions of everyday things just skip the basic engineering that makes them actually work, you know, like sunglasses with no UV protection or those cheap phone cables that stop charging after a month. It's one of those things where the cheap option looks the same on the shelf but the difference is in the invisible stuff, the chemicals mixed into the plastic or the quality of the copper inside. Really makes you wonder what shortcuts are baked into all the other "deals" we grab without thinking.

Ugh, nothing like being called out for sounding like a bad GPS.

Holy crap, 15 minutes for a 2 ton unit? That's wild. I get what you mean about being dead set against something though. I was the same way with those old manual come-alongs until I saw a guy rig up a pipe pull in a muddy ditch where no truck could get. It changed my whole view on simple gear. Chain hoists always looked like they'd be a pain to operate and slow as molasses, but your story makes me think I was wrong. Maybe I need to give them another look for the weird jobs where power is a problem.