Well, that may be, but I have my own list:
1960s era 10" table saw. Original fence was a POS. I replaced it with a '90s Sears fence. Much better, but no Bies. Overall, usable, but just no comparison to my Uni. 1960s era jigsaw, er scrollsaw they call them now. POS. Oil filled crank shaft got oil on everything within 3'. 1972 saber saw, er, jigsaw they call them now. POS. Cranking down on one of the two screws to hold the blade (and you had to) cracked the casting. Couldn't make a square cut. No comparison to my Bosch. 1972 RAS. Okay, but no DeWalt and won't stay in alignment past a couple of bumps. 1972 belt sander. POS. Can't wait to replace it--just as soon as I have a need for a belt sander. 1972 router. The mother of all POS. It's when I discovered the ARHA "feature.". 1972 drill press. Usable, but developed a vertical slop in the quill that I cannot fix. No comparison to my Delta. 1974 bandsaw. Underpowered, underweight, undersized. No comparison to my Delta. 1975 jointer. POS never would line up right. You could make the infeed table coplanar with the outfeed, OR you could raise and lower the infeed table, but you couldn't do both. Need I say DJ20? 1980 lathe. Odd size Morse tapers and spindle thread. No comparison to my Delta.Last summer my S-I-L bought one of their routers (Ryobi POS). Guess what? ARHA. I gave him a P-C 690 for Christmas.
That's 0 for 10 or 11 depending on how you score my S-I-L's router. You don't have to hit me over the head with a 2x4. I absolutely do get it. The lathe is the last Sears tool I will EVER buy; I don't care who makes them. I don't even trust that if Bosch makes their jigsaw it's the same jigsaw as Bosch's jigsaw.
One may ask, "why did you buy so many Sears tools if they were POS?" It's more or less a fair question, but basically back in the '70s there weren't any places to buy Deltas or Powermatics. Or not that I was aware of. Schools and professionals had them, but not us garage 'dorkers. And they commanded more of a premium over the Sears than they do today.
Shoot, because there was no Norm or Boob or David J. we average DIY guys hardly even knew those tools existed. We couldn't ask Jon Eakes. There was no Scott Phillips, no Ron Hazelton, no David Thiel. There was no Jet, no Chiwanese tools, no Harbor Freight (thank god). A lot of you guys don't realize how good we have it nowadays compared to then.
I don't even give the hand tools a pass anymore. Go to the borg and buy a Klein #2 Phillips screwdriver. Use it hard for a week. Then go get a Sears and use it hard for an hour. That's all it'll take. The wrenches are okay, but don't be convinced by the warranty. When Ace Hardware started warranting their Master Mechanic line of wrenches with the same warranty back in the '90s I figured it out. It's an actuarial thing, not a measure of tool quality. Just like rebates. Practically everyone warrants their wrenches for life, now.
Want to call me a tool snob? Go ahead. I wear that tag proudly. I've used low end and I've used high end. I may not be able to do better work with the high end, but I do easier work since I'm not fighting the tool, and if you don't understand what the simple pleasure of using a good tool adds to the project there's no explaining it to you. And probably no point in you buying the tools I buy.
Life is too short for third rate tools. Although in all fairness, I guess I should acknowledge that if I hadn't wallowed in so much Craftsman I may never have truly appreciated my Deltas, Makitas, Bosches, Porter-Cables, Milwaukees, Kleins, etc. when I got them. But if I could keep just one person from having to learn that lesson the way I did...