I'm looking at doing my own landscape lighting at this property and am interested in doing a decent job that avoids some issues from my last property. My last property was my first job and while it turned out alright, it was just big box store and/or very cheap lights found online. They mostly worked, but were a hassle to maintain connections and bulbs.

After doing some reading for professional landscape lighting this time around, I've learned quite a bit. I've bought brass fixtures (opted for Volt due to availability and pricing) and am shopping for bulbs now (somewhere I heard Volt bulbs are just cheaper bulbs marked up and not worth the price charged). I've read bulb quality can vary significantly in terms of how long they last. Does this difference hold true in 2023? Are the differences worth the cost? For example, I can easily find a bunch of brands I've never heard of on Amazon for LED MR16 around $2/bulb. If I try and find bulbs from Kichler or Unique (brands I've seen in an actual book), they are around $30/bulb sold as single bulbs and not even easy to find online to purchase. I don't mind spending more for bulbs if that is what makes sense and they are available to general public like myself, but does the $30 bulb last anywhere close to 10x as long as the $2/bulb (I already expect both to last well below the number of hours on packaging based on my experience with LED in general)? I want to avoid changing bulbs every few months constantly battling issues with them, but at the same time it's for my own house and if a bulb is out I can just grab one from the garage and swap it out unlike maybe a commercial property visit.