I'm pretty sure Doc B's tongue was in his cheek there - no harm, no foul!
We do look for good but plain parts, especially those that are most easily swapped out - capacitors and tubes. For one thing, it keeps the price accessible to more people; for another these things are so much a matter of taste, and the experience of discovering your own taste is so rewarding, that we do believe you should choose boutique parts yourself. We try to provide solid circuits, and as much as possible good transformers and chokes, which are more difficult to swap and (IMHO) more important to the ultimate sound.