The price difference of e.g the Valeton GP-200 to the Hotone Ampero 2 Stomp is about 100 €, so I'd say they are reasonably in the same category. Granted, the Valeton has more footswitches and an expression pedal so that's worth something.
At lower end of the price scale, it's always a question of "do I spend a bit more to buy the compact unit that sounds better, or go for the cheaper bigger unit that has more footswitches and whatnot but might not sound as good". I'd rather have e.g a HX Stomp instead of a Pod Go (which I keep forgetting even exists). Or Ampero 2 Stomp over the POD Express and similar.
The A2 Stage might be more worth its price if you consider it a vocal + guitar processor. It has some vocal effects that are not found on the Stomp so I don't know how good they are. But it has a built in mic pre and I don't think you find that feature on anything cheaper.
Purely for guitar, it's harder to say the Stage features are worth an extra 200 € or so over the A2 Stomp. It's not like a HX Stomp -> Helix LT situation where you also double the DSP for around 260 €.
So far the only effect that truly sucks is the String Shifter, which is supposed to down/uptune your guitar similar to the virtual capo pitch shift on Fractal. That effect seems completely broken, or it's not what the manual says it is. It sounds more like a warbling tremolo pitch shift effect.
The fuzz models sound fine, but don't react to guitar volume knob quite right, they seem like they don't clean up as well as real fuzzes can. Drive models are good.
For amp models, I haven't even tried all of them yet because there's so many, but so far the one I haven't liked has been the "Marshell SLP" (100W Marshall Superlead) model. But I can just ignore that exists and use the "Marshell 50" models that sound just fine.
If anything, I actually have to start putting higher standards on the more expensive units. If a unit this cheap is better to use than literally everything above its price range, comes with a comparable software editor, can run up to 12 fx blocks etc. If its sounds are let's say 80% as good, we are paying a lot for that extra quality and additional features.
Like how is a Nano Cortex worth more than this, with only 4 fx with one type each and only captures? If the A2 Stomp gets captures, that makes the NC value even worse.
PS. Ampero 2 Stomp boot time is around 8 seconds.
