there is no race to the bottom until everyone's quality is the same. thats why tech drops in price really fast - the quality is uniform throughout the field. because of it, the prices can drop.
there is no race to the bottom until you have 0 room for improvement in your quality.
china only makes cheaper goods because they have 10x the amount of eyes and brains and fingers, to imagine and create a cheaper method or system or material.
due merely to population, if the average lab in NA is 15 techs then the average lab in china is 150. thats 10x the power, 10x the brains, and 10x the problems to solve.
thats why outsourcing to a larger facility makes sense; they have the power to solve your problem at a cost that is reasonable. thats why Glidewell and Aurum get so much of the pie for sourced products in NA.