The massive differential in price between the good stuff and the regular stuff

Shopping around for decorative elements for a house to complete it and once again the old issue of dramatic difference in price is showing up. A smart builder can select nice items that offer a good performance/design/value balance, but more typical is being seduced by the ‘good’ stuff. And the good stuff will cost 3-4x the standard items. The failure here is the huge upgrade charges don’t build the house they tend to me more cosmetic than anything structural. It is just too easy to blow a suitable budget by tossing in the 10’s of thousands of upgrade items and look back later and wonder why the house cost 50$ per square foot more to build than planned.