Bid price is kind of irrelevant for milspec. What's actually important is understanding what the spec requires. A crappy rucksack from Amazon doesn't have a milspec, they can say whatever they want as long as it lasts longer than the 30 day warranty and return period. Obviously govsurp rucksacks don't have warranties but there's a legit spec you can look up that says how it was made and tested. Since it wouldn't have been purchased without a certificate of conformity, you can be sure that when the rucksack was new, it should have had a certain level of quality. No milspec manufacturer is designing the product far beyond the milspec because that increases cost and they won't sell. If Ford makes a car that will go for 500k miles without major repairs, it would likely wouldn't sell very well because of how expensive it would be. Meanwhile a car that can go to like 150k miles without major repairs will sell better because it costs less and is still a reasonable lifetime.

The lowest bider thing is such a lame meme. Vendors are going to design a product to cost as little as possible to meet spec. Most consumer products have little to no required specs so they can make it even cheaper. However, since milspec products often just have one spec they are designed to, you have a limited selection of quality. No one is making milspec birkin bags. But in the consumer space, you can buy anything between Temu and high-end designer quality.

I just stumbled across a Reddit post asking military members what military equipment was actually good and not just the cheapest junk the contractor can deliver. One of the most supported answers was actually the sleeping “system” and wet weather gear. I’m mostly familiar with old surplus stuff. Apparently some of the modern gear is really good.