If you don't want to spend $200 on them, then don't....I'm not your boss. If you want Dr. Martens, you need to buy Dr. Martens as there is no substitute. What you want and what you are going to get are apparently 2 different things in your mind and there is no closing the gap.

Don't get mad at me about it. I have I think 3 pair of not made in England Dr. Martens in my house with 3 years run time, two of the platform variety, with no issues. You need to know that people only go online to bitch and damn few come online to praise....5 horror stories online compared to 10,000 sales a quarter is not a good sample size to plant your flag in the moon about.