Depends how you do white elephant...

But still, a good gag gift takes effort. It's not like you walk into a random store and pick the first thing you see.

The whole aspect of stealing gifts demonstrates this. It'd be pointless if the gifts were all low grade garbage. They'd be effectively fungible. Yet the theft part it is critical to making white elephant fun. Regardless if you're doing gag gifts or good gifts.

Even a deliberately bad gift as a gag shows some effort and socialization.