The benefit of StewMac stuff is that I’ve yet to have any of it break or wear down. I decided to teach myself how to re-fret a neck a couple years back and bought a bunch of cheap Amazon shit. 3 weeks later I was ordering everything again but from StewMac and wish I did from the start. Fret files, fret-end files, crowning tool, etc.
I used cheap tools for a long time and found out the hard way that sometimes it’s worth kicking in some extra $$ for higher quality. Sure, Stew Mac has some crazy prices, but I’ve never ordered a single thing from them that broke or felt cheap.
Phillie Luthiers is great also, I order all my tuning machines from them!