That's pretty much my philosophy nowadays.

I had a Spyderco Delica, never really liked it because the thumbhole made the overall knife too wide when folded, and the handles were too flat and thin for my preference. Also because the handle was much lighter than the blade, it always felt front heavy. Ended up chipping the tip of the blade while doing something then lost it somewhere.

My current knife is a Benchmade mini-griptillian in D2. It's a nice knife and the handle is really comfortable, but other than that I really don't see big difference between it and a lot of the cheaper folders I used to have. One of my biggest pet peeves is the blade choil? the part of the blade that connects to the handle. Rather than transitioning to the unsharpened part of the blade, the edge just ends at a groove. This is extremely annoying when cutting cardboard,paper, string, etc, as the material tends to ride up the blade until it's caught in that groove.

The two knives that I like are well below your budget. The Mini Gerber EZ-out I had was a very comfortable knife because of the rubber inserts, and was fairly lightweight so you wouldn't feel it as much in your pocket. Unfortunately I loaned it to someone when camping and they liked it so much they never returned it. The only flaw was the clip would loosen over time, didn't really bother me. I also like the CRKT B.U.L.L. On sale, they were about $15, so I never really worried about damaging them or losing them (and I have lost a couple of knives to the TSA). The blade shape is a little harder to sharpen because of the recurve, but not impossible. The opening mechanism, once you got used to it, was a lot quicker and easier for me than a thumbstud. It's the knife I take when travelling, since I won't worry too much if it gets lost. If you're buying a knife for your trip to CA, I don't see an advantage to spending more than $20-$25 because they all cut about the same.