If you listen to a crappy car stereo or something there is a lack of fidelity that makes everything sound bad/fuzz/hissy/distorted. That is something you have to deal with in electric guitars that you don't really have to deal with at all with acoustic guitars.
Lots of the amps under $500 have this in spades. If you go with single coil guitars like Fenders/Squiers they have noise and wiring issues that contribute to this too.
I feel like the cheap Epiphones have a little bit better chance at having cleaner wiring/electronics because they often have humbuckers so that helps there. My experience picking them up in the store though is it would seem like it's harder to get one that has good mechanical quality compared to a Fender MIM or a Squier though.
Yamaha THRs are probably the "FG800 of guitar amps" though. Very easy call there for an inexpensive amp.
Some of this depends on the music you play too. If you're playing blues, power chords, and single line runs you can get better sounds out of the cheap amps and equipment. If you start trying to play fuller sounding chords and particularly with really clean sounds you start running into the limitations of the amps & wiring/pickups, etc..
I ended up upgrading my amp in less than 6 months. I have a MIM Telecaster, got it used cheap. Mechancially it was always fantastic, but I still went through a setup journey. And I upgraded the pickups & wiring myself, it's fantastic now. I probably have $700 in it total.
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