Electric foamy pilots are predominantly 15-20 year olds, with little money.
I agree with what you said except this I think. A lot of people in my club fly foamies and I think I'm the youngest at 33! Plus if you watch a lot of videos on the web, they're all 30-70 year old guys with the gws and alfa models and the teens through 30s with the 300 dollar 3d foamies... 5 bucks worth of foam but brushless, small servos, lipos, etc!
Anyway, I think the GWS class planes in the 50ish dollar category come with motors to entice all types of flyers from total noobs to glo guys who want to fly in their backyard or local park. If its really cheap and flies ok they can get into it and learn about upgrades later. GWS is moving toward lipos and brushless now as upgrades for this reason but simplify the build process by including most gear and having the rest available.
The next step up don't include motors or maybe include a gearbox only like the MiniFuntana and say realistically you need brushless and lipos to fly like it was designed to fly.
But maybe I haven't had experience with some of the brands that may still be difficult to fly these days stock because of being underpowered and other issues. I bet those days are gettig numbered though, so much competition!