There are a lot of plugs out there that look incredible, the paint jobs are a work of art.
But what catches fish is a plug with good action and a surfcaster that provides a great presentation in an area with fish.
I fished metal lips made by the popular plug builders that cost 20-30 per plug with virtually no fish caught. As a mater of fact the hooks on a few of them would grt wrapped on the leader at time. I had no confidence in them.

I started using Double H Lures (Rip-Pluggers) and first time out with them I found an area that looked fishy, made the cast and landed a Striper.
Confidence, no foul hook-ups. I fished his plugs the rest of the year, had my best year by a long shot, caught fish way more often than not. My level in confidence went way up and improved all areas of my fishing as I spent more time in areas that had fish around, paid more attention to presentation, learned a lot about fishing different conditions with different plugs, metals and teasers.
Success builds confidence, confidence leads to success. It snow balls.
Its not how pretty or expensive a plug looks, its the confidence you have in your approach to catching fish.
Spending $20-$40 for a plug does nothing to enhance the chances of catching fish, there are many plugs that can be purchased for $10-$15, or bucktails/shads/metals/teasers for $5 that will out fish the expensive "custom" plugs.
Just my opinion, based on my experience.