Most likely your friends want to make themselves feel better about spending all that money on a high dollar pistol so they put down the "cheap" guns.
my $350 P95PR15 has fed, fired, and ejected 700 rounds so far, with NO malfunctions whatsoever. I've limp-wristed it, shot it from weird angles, frogotten to tap the back of the mag many times, shot hollowpoints, +p, and weido European surplus crap that was several years old. One outing was a 300 some odd round, all day, shoot-till-you puke outing in which I didn't clean it during the trip and fired tons of ammo with out breaks. The gun was dirty and extremely hot, yet it never even so much as hiccupped It outshoots my abilities hands down, it's a total ammo whore (gobbles anything you give it!) and I'd trust it with my life anyday.