everyone's entitled to their own opinion... Mine is that no way can I see the value in a £400-£500 helmet..they all meet exactly the same standards as a £50 item... and to be totally frank I think if your going to really safety conscious all helmets require replacement after 3 years as the interiors degrade, that's why when they get scrutineered at race meetings at most level , the date stamp inside is inspected and they have to be under 3 years old.. I would sooner buy a cheap quality helmet and replace it each year ,
but yes, a few years back there was some truly horrible polycarbonate helmets around , Thankfully at least in the UK these seem to have fell by the wayside , (mainly due to the very cheap production costs now available on the top spec items ) .. I would certainly be of the opinion that today's cheaper helmets are better spec and safer than the absolute top flight helmets of a few years back... IMO