[Baeocystin]

99%+ of my hobbyist electronics bits n' bobs are ali express/banggood specials, and they have all worked fine, from arduino clones to sensors and ESP8266's.

If I were working on something more important that dinking around for fun, sure, I might care a bit more about what's actually on the board. But as it is, the clones are more than adequate for my needs, particularly at their price point.

[duskwuff]

In the case of the ESP8266, the parts were available through channels like eBay and AliExpress long before they showed up through any of the typical electronics distributors. Same thing goes for other first-in-China parts like the GD32 series (STM32 clone) and WCH340 series (USB/serial).