When I buy a product, I try to ignore the brand and look at the quality of material the product is made from, its suitability to the task and its quality of manufacturing.

I do the same! Sometimes annoys some of my family members when I do it.

premium consumer brands (Tumi, North Face, Hartman, Henkel, Cole Haan shoes and so on) have joined in the fight for the bottom consumer tranche with nearly indistinguishable product from "the pack"

Yep. And they have other tricks, like Henckels says "made with German steel", but it's still manufactured [cheaply] in China. Whenever I buy Henckels, I make sure the item says "made in Germany" on it. They make some of the best knives. My grandfather had a very old one from when he lived in Germany, he left in the mid 1930s and the knife was already "old" then. When he died, my dad took the knife, and it is still in regular use today by my dad. About 30 or 40 years ago, I bought a set of Henckels (I think they are called "Professional S" model) and they still look like new despite regular use over all those decades. And, more recently, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, I bought a set of Henckels steak knives that perform admirably (though only used relatively rarely).

and have been replaced by an accumulation of Japanese blades (selected for their particular steels) of indeterminate manufacturers.

I've used Shun knives at a friend's house, and while they are excellent, I don't think they are worth the very high price they command compared to nearly-as-good German knives. Certainly not worth the price to simply swap out my Henckels knives. I also bought a pair of Chicago Cutlery knives as a gift a decade or two ago, and reportedly they also are performing very well (especially for the relatively low price they sell for).

As far as cookware goes, it's really been hit or miss with us. Some of the higher end brands just don't work well for us, so we now have a large assortment of all brands. For my daily eggs, I really like the ceramic coated pans, they just work so well. And amazingly, they are among the least expensive ones out there on the market today!