Amateurs.
$12 buys you straight bourbon. There is no straight bourbon out there that's bad. It can be boring, bland, a bit harsh - but any straight bourbon on the shelves is fine. $12 can get you benchmark, ew black, beam white, some costco brand bourbon, some safeway brand bourbon, wild turkey (even sometimes the 101), old granddad 86... none of them are really bad.
Those are california prices, this article is about california. Some of those bottles are more like $8.50 than $12.
Yeah, my usual stuff is OGD 114 or OWA 107 or ETL, my nice stuff is pretty nice, but I'll drink the $12 stuff, no problem. Would never pay for it in a bar, but a bottle of straight bourbon for $12 will never be bad.