The membership on this site (and particularly this thread) skews older - dare I say it, "Middle aged"? (I was recently informed that at 40, I am in fact middle aged, even if I still feel like a child.) And we're avid skiers. As such, I venture that most of us are in a relatively comfortable financial situation, and we also don't have the tolerance for discomfort that we had when we were younger. Our concept of "minimum acceptable quality" is different than that of people who have fewer resources and/or are younger and thus more resilient.
Last season, I had an eye opening experience - rode with some "friends of friends" who were getting into mountain biking. One bought a mountain bike online for $150. The other was borrowing what he described as a high end bike from a relative, and it was probably 15 years old. Most of us would have refused to ride these bikes. They were just fine.
@Eric267 I'm not sure why a 130+ travel bike is even vaguely necessary for a beginner. (Look at my assumption there - that only beginners buy cheap bikes.) But if you really want a nice bike for cheap, get on PinkBike. I recently sold two bikes - Ellsworths, ferchrissakes - one a 100mm excellent 26er that went to a literal child, the other a 9" travel downhill bike, rarely ridden. Both went for around $600 after I spent quite a while trying to gin up a buyer. They were far from new, but I can tell you that the difference between my 2011ish XC bike and my new SB5 is incremental. I was still actively riding that XC bike, and enjoying it, days I got the SB5. I also rode that XC bike on plenty of lift-serviced, somewhat rowdy trails before I got the DH rig (which was way overkill, but I got a great deal).