Honestly, if you want a good gun for less money, I'd look at the used counter of the local fun shop...
My Beretta 92FS compact I picked up for 425
My FN P35 I picked up for 250
My S&W Model 36 I paid the princely sum of 150 bucks...
All told though, it'll hardly matter.
Most people who buy cheap guns won't break them. Here's why:
If you're on a budget that won't allow you to spend 500 bucks for a Glock or M&P or Sig Pro (I consider those to be high quality guns. If you have one, you know why), you'll likely look at something like a Ruger, or a Smith SD9 or maybe you'll wander over to the used counter and pick up the Third Gen Smith or a Ruger P89. You shell out the 250 bucks for the Ruger P89 because it's cheaper and Gunshop Shep doles out the possibly sound piece of advice and tells you that the Ruger P-series guns are built like tanks and won't break. You believe him and then buy a 17 dollar box of ammo and shoot one box of ammo every other month or so but probably less because you're busy and that new baby is putting a crunch on the ol' wallet and the daily allotment of hours. That wouldn't hardly be enough abuse to break a gun if it were manufactured out of MIM parts and butterfly wings*
The average, budget minded shooter probably isn't going to go online to Freedom Munitions and buy two cases of 9mm because 400 bucks on ammo was more than the cost of the pistol....which they bought because it wasn't over 400 bucks. It is also why they won't break the gun and why the notion of a "Most reliable gun under 400 dollars" is sort of silly to me. It's a business model to target people constricted by a tight budget and it explains fairly well why companies like Taurus and Hi-Point and Kel-Tec are still in business.
It's not because people on a budget aren't savvy, because budget minded shooters can still pick up that Ruger P89 or the Smith 64 police trade in, but for the budget constrained shooter, it makes no difference.
*I'm fairly certain butterfly wings are not used in the manufacture of any firearms other than perhaps the little Jennings and Bryco disposable 25 caliber pistols.