Not sure I'd say we were spoilt. From my perspective as a teenager in the 80s. While I drooled over the fancy kit, I always turned to Geoff Boxall's under 50 quid review. First rifle, purchased directly due to a review on said page, was an ASI Magnum. It was years before I could afford a non-budget rifle (AA Mistral) and then a couple more when I got my 77K, then I finally realised that I could hit stuff with it to a level that I couldn't match with the others. The custom jobs were way out of reach.
Also, with a few notable exceptions including Venom and Airmasters, I got the distinct impression even back then, that most of the fancy custom jobs were really just a basic factory action with a basic spit 'n' polish tune and a fancy ish stock for a lot of money.
“We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.” - Marcus Aurelius