Economy vs premium parts?

I replaced the stabilizer links on my 2001 Windstar a while back and needed to decide whether to buy the economy parts or the premium ones. The economy part was $46 and the premium part was $58. Because of the age of my vehicle, I decided to put the economy parts on, even though the premium part was only $12 more and came with a life time warranty. Purchasing auto parts sometimes feels like a visit to a smorgasbord. You are offered a variety of options with supposedly varying quality along with varying prices. Am I correct in assuming that as the price of a part increases, so does its quality? I often wonder whether there is really much difference in quality between the cheaper part and the premium or lifetime part or is this simply a marketing ploy to squeeze more money from customers. Yes, I do realize that there varying degrees of quality among automotive parts and you usually get what you pay for, but I’m curious to find out what your take is on premium vs base line parts. I buy most of my parts from Partsource here in Canada and I haven’t had any problems so far with poor quality parts. When your turn comes to step up to the counter to buy a part, how do you decide which part to choose from the menu? Thanks for your input.