By lower quality, do you mean that the Troy built will only last 5-10 years instead of 20+ for the ariens etc... or do you mean that the performance is drastically different, or both?
Value brand snowblowers use more generic parts than others and poor fit -especially between impeller and impeller housing- usually means poor snow clearing performance. One thing I often notice with such machines is that many of them attain high speeds (impractically high in fact) but can't throw snow more than a few feet regardless of engine size, inefficient power distribution is a sure sign of poor design. As for longevity it's hard to tell since most owners get tired of them long before they develop serious mechanical issues.
That said, I know a few DIY'ers who purposefully buy value snowblowers and turn them into efficient machines with surprisingly little investment. This is possible because a lot of low-cost machines are equipped with reasonably good quality engines. With the notable exception of Honda snowblower manufacturers generally don't manufacture their own engines so even "cheap" brands have to buy theirs from the same suppliers the others guys do and there aren't that many engines that are suited for the job, truly bad ones are rare.
Honda HS928 TCD - If you lived where I live you'd have one too
