Hi sdmark,
“Better” really depends on how you define it and includes subjective, objective, and intangible elements.
One part of “better” is the suitability of a mattress and how well you sleep on it and this can’t be measured except subjectively. If you buy a mattress that costs $2000 and the materials are too soft … then even a small amount of foam softening can put you outside the range of comfort and support that is suitable for you. In some cases it may be unsleepable from the beginning. In this case the mattress would only be useable for very short period of time if at all even though the materials themselves are nowhere close to being “worn out” and it may be a lower cost than any other mattress that used similar materials. Even the best quality and value mattress in the world would have little value for someone that couldn’t sleep on it because the design wasn’t suitable for them and in this case a mattress that was suitable may be 100 times “better” than one you can’t sleep on at all no matter what the quality or price. How do you objectify the quality of sleep in any meaningful way and yet this is arguably the most important part of a mattress purchase and will have a bigger effect on how you feel than any other part of a mattress purchase.
Another part of value … and a big part of what you pay for … is the quality and durability of the materials. This is something that you can’t feel in a showroom because even the lowest quality materials can feel the same as higher quality materials … for a while. Once again though as the lower quality materials change, soften, or break down more quickly over time … the mattress can quickly cross your threshold and be outside the range of what is suitable for you even if it is still suitable for someone else who purchased the same mattress and had more “room” in their range of comfort and support that was suitable for them. Higher quality materials will stay closer to their original specifications for a longer period of time.
There are also many other parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase that may be part of each person’s “personal value equation” and are outlined in post #46 here. For some people a relatively small difference between mattresses or the options that a mattress provides or a retailer or manufacturer makes available may be highly significant and “valuable” for them … even if it wasn’t for someone else. For some people … the difference in sleep quality between good and great or the ability of a retailer to help them find the mattress that is “best” for them may be worth 10 times the cost for them if nothing else comes close to their ideal.
In many cases who you buy from can be just as important a part of a successful purchase as what you buy.
In other words… “value” can include objective, subjective, and even intangible elements and to reduce it to only one of these (such as durability alone which is also relative to each person) or to a formula can lead to paying the price in different ways including the quality of their sleep. If someone sleeps well on a mattress for 10 years and on another mattress they only sleep well for a year and then sleep OK or worse for another 9 years with the mattress gradually getting worse and worse until they can’t stand it any more and finally decide to replace it … how much “better” is the first mattress than the second. Both of them “lasted” for the same length of time. The real cost of a poor choice can be much more than any difference in price between two mattresses. At the end of the day most people will remember much more about how well they slept on a mattress and how long it lasted than they will about what they paid for it when it was new.
Not only the extra top layers or the lack of two sided mattresses but also the quality of the top layers as well as there has been a trend in the mainstream industry towards using lower quality materials and charging higher prices. Some of the “myths” that many consumers believe include things like “a thicker mattress is better”. A foam can be made from many raw materials and there is no law that it needs to use petrochemicals. As a matter of fact there is a current industry trend towards replacing petrochemicals with plant based alternatives although it’s also the basis for a great deal of greenwashing (see post #2 here).
In the end … “value” is really an assessment that is as individual and unique as each person and can’t really be reduced to a formula.
Phoenix
PS: @dn I agree with the points you made and your insights completely … and some of the best quality/value manufacturers in the country are not as good at “competing” in the face of the overwhelming “noise” of advertising that is so common in the industry today even though they are much “better” in any meaningful evaluation that includes real quality or value.