I thought it sounded like quite the opposite: he's not saying they aren't buying it because they're cheap (he points out that if it worked, and they were trying to be cheap, they would buy it). He's saying they're not buying it because it might not work very well.
I'll give you that. But that's also why I try to remind people what one of the founding beliefs was. And that your system is always going to fail to some degree, so do you want it to fail safe (innocent go to jail) or fail open (guilty go free)?