Man did this thread go totally off the track!
Dive-aholic nailed what hit me from the other threads -- the whole idea of, as I wrote, being penny wise and pound foolish.
I must respond to those who decried my comment about dive gear being "life support gear." Do you really not think it is? I don't know about you, but I don't have gills so I NEED my regulator (and associated parts) to be working correctly and delivering safe gas if I want to be underwater more than a few seconds (even an excellent free diver is going to have difficulty staying UW more than about 300 seconds, right?).
Of course, just because it IS "life support gear" doesn't mean that price = value = good. It may well be that some of the least expensive "life support gear" provides the absolute best value and works very well -- but that gear isn't "cheap." And, as Dive-aholic wrote, those lessons you get from a very good instructor, while perhaps "pricey" may well be the least expensive way to obtain your goal.
For what it's worth, I cringe when I see one of my students buy the "next new thing" and generally have to bite my tongue to keep from asking them (in front of the shop owner) "Why did you buy this when 'X' is right over there at half the price and will do the job better?" OTOH, I also cringe when I have a student proudly show me what a great "deal" he got by buying off Craigslist or at the super sale when, in fact, the gear won't perform -- THAT's when they are "Doing It Cheap" and I just don't get it.