Hi rocdred,
Yes … much of the information on this site can certainly change the way people look at mattresses or evaluate them but once you read it makes so much sense to most people that it would be difficult to make a blind purchase again. This type of information can empower consumers to make much better choices. There are many in the industry that look at mattresses the same way and I have had hundreds of conversations with retailers and manufacturers who are grateful that this type of information is finally available in one place as they often felt like a lone voice trying to help their customers and provide better information in an industry that is mostly deceptive hype and all the while coming up against the marketing “stories” that are the norm in the industry that so many consumers believe so easily without any “fact checking”.
This depends on your definition of what “decent” means. For some people a 6" layer of good quality polyfoam with a decent cover for a fewe hundred dollars would be a decent mattress and would provide them with good quality sleep for a long time. For others the same “mattress” would be unsleepable.
There are really 4 things that are consistently important in a mattress purchase. One is comfort/pressure relief which is what you feel when you go to sleep at night. One is support/alignment what you feel when you wake up in the morning. If you know how to do accurate and objective testing on a mattress these can be tested in a showroom. The next is the quality of the materials in terms of durability. This is all about knowing what is inside your mattress (and/or buying froom someone who will tell you) so you have a reasonable idea of how the mattress will feel and perform in a year or more down the road. Lower quality materials will soften and break down much faster and the loss of comfort and support that comes from foam softening isn’t covered by warranties. Finally there is all the objective, subjective, and intangible factors that are part of each person’s personal value equation. This is what can help them make more meaningful comparisons between mattresses and who they purchase from.
A mattress is one of the most important purchases that most people will make over the next decade and will have a bigger effect on how they feel and their overall wellbeing (obvious or hidden) than almost any other purchase they make. Following the steps and guidelines can help people make much higher quality/value and more suitable choices.
I would agree that lying on a mattress for 2 minutes is pointless and a waste of time and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. Testing a mattress for “comfort” alone or reading reviews is also mostly pointless and your odds of making the most suitable choice for those who do this are less than 50/50 (see this study). On the other hand those who carefully and objectively test a mattress following the guidelines I have suggested have much higher odds of making a very good choice. Of course there is a range of people that goes from “I can sleep on anything” to “princess and the pea” and for those who are at the “I can sleep on anything” end of the scale then there are a large number of mattresses that would likely be suitable in terms of PPP and they have many more options.
Each person of course is going to choose what is most important to them or what they believe regardless of what they read on any website. Saatva is certainly a better choice than most mainstream options and they make it easy to do business with them because of their return policy. Quality and value of the mattress aside though … some of the comparisons they make are not completely accurate and somewhat misleading and it would make sense to me to compare them to a couple of other mattresses that are available to you and then you can make much more meaningful decisions. They are certainly a better choice than many others that are available in the mainstream industry in spite of the mattresses that they use as comparisons on their site (and I believe that you will likely see this change over time based on my conversations with both them and the manufacturer of the mattress who are actually “good people” IMO). The factory that manufacturers them is one of the larger brands (in the top 20) that I have mentioned many times on the site as being potentially better value and is more transparent than most manufacturers of their size.
Since value is relative to each person … only you can decide what is the best “value” for you and if making a quick decision is an important part of value to you then that would be an important part of your choice. Value is always relative to what you are comparing something to and to the criteria that is most important to each person.
If you are comfortable buying a used mattress (and you cal see here some of the things I would look for here) then I would probably be looking at paying something in the order of 50% of the mattress and then go up or down from there based on “best judgement” and the condition of the mattress and any other factors you considered important. Part of this is that if you aren’t happy with your choice you will have no recourse and no matter what the quality or value of a mattress if you can’t sleep on it over the long term it would have little value to you. At the very least … unless you are in the “I can sleep on anything” end of the scale … I would make sure you did some very careful and objective testing on the mattress for PPP.
There is no right or wrong in any of this … only informed decisions.
Assuming you go through with the purchase … I’m looking forward to your feedback when you have the chance to sleep on it 
Phoenix