I know the OP is long gone, but since the topic has come back up and seems relevant, thought I'd throw in my 2 engineering cents in case anyone is interested:
The appropriate torque for a given fastener increases roughly with the square of the fastener's radius. (torque is pretty complicated- this is just super rough).
But as you get to the bigger drives, the stiffness (think moment of inertia) of the drive, the extension, even the sockets themselves, increases by the fourth power of the tool's radius. Perhaps more importantly the geometry inside the socket becomes more favorable.
Consequently, we can see analytically what most of us have known all our lives - bigger fasteners are easier to remove without rounding their heads, provided you have a ratchet handle long enough.
My advice is to spend money on high quality smaller drive tools where you will reap greater performance advantages. When you get to 1/2" drive, the alloys matter less, the heat treat and even geometries matter less so the performance difference between brands may be lessened.
Just to repeat myself - from an engineering standpoint, it makes sense to spend for truck tools on the smaller drive tools because they are under greater stress, long extensions and ratchets and save money on the larger sockets, and shorter ratchets, and extensions.
Ditto for allen and torx bit sockets. Their small features see pretty high stresses so it makes sense to buy quality bit sockets. As they get larger, it matters less to have the truck brands.
We often take an all or nothing approach to brand selection. Hopefully this gives guys who have a restricted budget (don't we all) some guidance on how to get the most bang for their buck.
