I'd avoid no-name brands with unknown RMA reliability, but I wouldn't rule out lesser spec NVMe for true "super budget" builds. I actually run a low end SSD on my daily driver laptop and it's fine. Since the initial cloning, I don't do any bulk sustained writes and I don't notice any performance cliff. It's an Inland QN322, which is rebadged of some known budget drive (PNY IIRC). When I bought it in fall 2022, it was way cheaper than a top tier drive and it was an impulse Black Friday purchase.
So no, I wouldn't rule out DRAM-less if that's only what fits into the budget (right now NAND is much more expensive than just 3 months ago; the supply glut is over). It's like when the OP asked about "certified" PSUs for a 10 year old Dell SFF and people were recommending $100 Tier A PSUs, which doesn't make any sense.
Having said that, I went from 512GB to 2TB and the capacity is highly underutilized one year later. So if I had to do it over again, a higher quality 1TB drive probably would have made more sense. Typically I try to buy more storage capacity than I need because it always seems to fill up. In fall 2023, NAND was dirt cheap so you were incentivized to buy better products (Intel 670p was cheap and good enough for most consumers).
One note about Amazon and also Best Buy. Sometimes they will have open box items with a hefty discount; people return NVMe drives with just a few power on hours so they're basically new. If you happen to get a dud, it's easy to return.