Brands, it seems to me, are anything but a consistent thing ... probably because pipes are made from a product that occurs in nature and irrespective of which maker did the conversion from root to pipe, the raw materials aren't all equal ...
Case in point, the best single pipe I've ever owned came from Ben Wade ... I've got several Wades and they're all over the map, from very good to acceptable, but one that I'm going to say is the biggest purchase mistake I ever made from a cost/performance point of view ...
I've got a 20's era KBB Yello Bole, two Bari's, a number of 'house' pipes (Edwards, Iwan Reis, et al) and several no visible nomenclature pipes that are seriously great smokers ...