LED light technology is improving all the time. Less power drain, higher output, better color, varying patterns. It's so fast it's hard for a mainstream company to keep up, new testing, new production and marketing. The cheap Chinese companies don't care and throw out the latest and greatest stuff as soon as they can for as cheap as they can to capture some of the marketshare. So, they can turn on a dime. The problem is sometimes poor design and or sometimes poor quaility. Sometimes, they get it right, sometimes they don't. Switches are usually the first failure. Then you have to think about contacts and circuitry, lens and reflector, durability, longevity, etc. Even if the design is decent, QC is the biggest issue.
To say that the bigger light companies are ripping you off is like saying DeWalt is ripping you off because your Harbor Freight drill is just as good. The both drill holes. But, you don't know if the Harbor Freight drill is going to work next week.
To each their own. It's a personal value decision.
On the camera focus, yes it's likely the light is strobing faster than you can see, but the camera is picking it up.