There is certainly a place for inexpensive, as opposed to cheap and poor quality, binoculars. For one thing they can be loaned out. You wouldn't allow your six year old kid to use your $800 Steiners without direct supervision. But a pair of compact, 7x30, Bushnell binoculars going for $15 you can let them have, hold, and use as they see fit. If they drop them in the swamp or leave them on the lawn, where you murder them with the lawnmower, your not out much.

On the other hand, often for that same $15 you can find binoculars that are so poorly made that they give you a headache in five minutes of use. Lens flare, rainbows, optical distortion and the two scopes pointing at different targets can be so bad as to make a pair of binoculars impossible to use effectively. So there are limits as to how cheaply built you can go.