From my experience new car tires are budget tires that never last. Usually at the 30K mark it is time for a next set anyway. It is unfortunate that car manufacturers don't spec better tires since it leads some people to swap them early on and results in unneeded waste. I would gladly pay a little more for a better set of tires on a new car.
The amount of money that the manufacturers spend on OE pairings is actually pretty staggering. Considerations of average-use needs (not just mileage, but also "typical" conditions traction) paired with NVH concerns means that outside of some very, very specific pairings (think ultra-high-performance vehicles), these issues lead to numerous compromises (including the cost to the consumer).
But unfortunately for most enthusiasts, the vast majority of such offerings do not fit our requirements for either durability and/or performance. That said, Forumites and social-media users of similar communities are a very specific subset of owners, so there's a bit of bias here, too. :tango_face_wink:
You're right - for most of the vehicles that most of us drive, "budget" does figure heavily into the equation. But at the same time, realize that this is in large part a by-product of the segment we're shopping in. :smile:
I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to participate in a world-release of a very, very high performance tire from a very highly regarded manufacturer nearly a decade ago. The amount of money they spent in developing the tire with their OE connections was apparent in EVERY aspect the event they hosted, including every detail of how each member of the press and private-citizen enthusiasts like us - we're not even talking about VIPs - were treated. To someone who was not in the industry, my eyes were popping as I tallied up what I thought would be a reasonable per-person dollar amount that they spent on us, not to even think about how much the event itself must have cost.