Not sure there is a gain in protection necessarily by going up in price. The elbow and shoulder pads that came with my $200 Alpinestar mesh and my $250 Scorpion leather look just as good as what I got in my $1200 Aerostich. For back pads the nice pad material like Forcefield is pretty reasonable aftermarket https://fortnine.ca/en/catalogsearch/result/?q=forcefield
And that being said, if you really want protection you have to go airbag. A quarter inch of padding is still not much if you hit hard
You are getting nicer construction and features, zippers, pockets, etc. Goretex does cost money but it means you don't need to pack a rain suit, which is certainly nice on a trip, at the cost of turning you into a bag of sweat putting around town on a hot day.
Yup.
In his case, he's paying for the Gore Tex. You could have the exact same jacket with the exact same protection sans Gore Tex for half price.
Going up in price might also get you better armor. CE1 vs CE2. Or thicker/better materials (say, 740D vs 1000D material or Kevlar stitching (good) vs Dynema stitching (best).)
My armor, including chest/back is Forcefield CE2. My back/chest exceeds CE2. There's lots of good stuff out there! D30, Sas-Tec, Cee-Soft, etc
And yea...I really like Hit-Air inflatable. Best on the market IMO since they were the only ones who have massive head/neck stabilization built into it..which the others lack. In a crash, our flimsy necks with a heavy helmet on it might not do so well!! I'd likely NOT recommend an inflatable if you're goofing off off-road since you tend to fall off LOTS!
