You said it...that's precisely why my 'starter' sewing machine was a low-end Brother with 60 stitches. It was less than $100, 6 years ago. It was either dropped or something fell on it during our summer 2012 travels, so it doesn't work anymore. But that wasn't a fault of the machine.
I have some good memories from using that machine. My great niece and nephew made their first quilts on it, their first pillow cases and a quilt for their younger brother. (All their projects used walmart fabric, too.) Simple stuff, for sure, but fun and creative. My nephew even went out and spent $4 on a little sewing machine at a flea market! He also designed and made me a shopping bag on his own, with no pattern - just used what he'd learned and worked some magic using my scraps. That little machine was worth its' weight in gold to me when he presented that bag to me!
My grandson (then 10) made a quilt for his new baby nephew and marveled at the 'new fabric' that the piecing made.
I would have missed a lot of fun, great memories, missed meeting some wonderful friends at quilt guilds and been bored out of my mind if I was afraid of the 'quilt police'. And If I only used 'quality' fabric, well, most of the quilts I make wouldn't have been made! As many before me have said, I've seen many of the Walmart fabrics in LQS for more $$, but paying extra for them didn't make them any better.