This thread just made my day - and I'm laughing my head off.
Yes, a lot of the Baofeng radios are junk. I've heard (sort of - they are almost uniformly "muffled") many of these $35 wonders on the air and helped a number of new hams with issues. The general fix is to: 1. Get a decent VHF/UHF antenna on the roof and, 2. get a decent radio. Usually it's brand new hams wondering why they can't consistently hit a repeater or be understood.
Some China products are indeed climbing the quality curve, Rigol and Siglent are two lab equipment makers that are on the way - but not quite there yet. Others, like Baofeng, have a business plan that places price above all else. So quality, consistency, performance and compliance are either at the bare minimum or non-existent. They really don't care if the radios work well or not. As long as you buy them.
The ham community is made up of a broad spectrum of operators - well-heeled to poor as churchmice and as skilled as a Nobel Prize winner and as incompetent as a person can be. Within that is a subset/group that is attracted to the PROMISE of capability at almost no cost - and herein lies the Baofeng market.
I've seen Baofeng users drill out the pinholes in their HT mic ports, with mixed success, just to TRY and get better TX sound quality out of them. "Good" is nothing happens. Bad is the mic is toast and they have to use an external one. Either way, junk is junk. And junk is sometimes a lot of fun to play with - I've done it myself with swap meet acquisitions and have even tried another brand of China HT (changing the channel is like solving a Chinese puzzle box). Amateur Radio is a hobby, and hobbies are entertainment - so whatever amuses you, does not violate any laws or regulations (quite a few Baofengs DO) and does no harm to others (like blocking a repeater during a net with difficult to understand audio) is just fine.
Hats off to Neal (N6YFM) - I know exactly what you are talking about, and to Dereck (KF5LJW) - he's exactly right:
K6CPO: "Does no one do research before buying a radio or does the lure of a cheap price over-ride logic and common sense?"
KF5LJW: "You are joking right? Ever been to a ham fest?"

Brian - K6BRN