I admire the majority of aspiring authors. Writing for your own amusement is oten fun and sometimes easy. Writing something with the intention of selling it takes courage and hard work fofr most IMO.
As spindlegirl said lots of less than scintillating books have been around for a very long time.
I can ignore a fair amount of typos and grammatical errors in fiction if the story is good. Even a certain amount of cut and paste repetitions. Not so in non-fiction. A paper book I read on body language, wriiten by an expert in Neuro-linguistic programming had so many repetitive cut and pastes throughout that it seemed I was reading the same book over and over.
Generally I read older books because I have hundreds of cherished authors and I try to fill in the books written by them that I have not read. I try to read at least one new (to me) author every week or so, but usually pick one with several books in case I want to read more
Price is not usually a factor. I can forgo a night out, make my own coffee or sandwich and even on occasion pass up the latest electronic gizmo or appliance. Of course if it is free to buy or even cheap and I want to read it then that is a bonus.
I think that overall good/excellent authors will rise to the top, and maybe a few bad (IMO) ones as well.
I don't begrudge anyone anyone making money from writing whether they are doing it for fun or profit. Where would we be without them.
Helen