Basic trends that are acknowledged in the TV industry:
- Margins are a lot tighter than before. The industry runs on an annual release cycle and it's become very competitive because of the general price and margin drops
- You can get more telly for less i.e. a bigger screen at higher resolution for cheaper than ever before.
- There is such a thing as a poor quality (or, variable quality) TV product. CPU speed, level of image processing, chassis build, and obviously panel quality all vary. There is certainly a price point where you might not be winning on any of those fronts except cheapness.
That said, I'm surprised a Samsung would be so disappointing as they're a top tier brand. You do have to manage expectations but there are many budget brands below Samsung.
I bought a 2015 model Samsung, in 2016, 48" for £500. That was a killer discount even considering it was end of line. So to find the same size for £350 now? Samsung have either introduced an even lower spec, or everything has squeezed margins even further.
Obviously higher end TVs will have more spec to justify price and hopefully a higher margin. But to see OLED drop to 1000 when the same size 3 years ago was 2000+? That's a new, improving technology. Definitely not price gouging.
You get what you pay for in any given year. Depends on your price point whether that's better than a few years ago or not.
Source: I test TVs for certification.