Much as I like how my M-C kitchen items add loveliness, I would never urge anyone to buy their products because they are a good value. Frankly, I don't think that they are, in general, a good value and that is the trade-off for their loveliness, sad but true. 
M-C manufacture a lot, if not most, of their items outside the U.S., including their decorative resin pieces. Did that stop me from buying an adorable bunny from their website when they deeply discounted it? Nope! Do I even think it is "worth" the discounted pric?, Probably not LOL! But he will be a lovely and special addition to next year's Easter mantelscape, no doubt. (I am kind of an Easter nut.)
I have had the same complaint about their lids as many others have noted here and elsewhere. Ironically, I have "solved' the problem for the canisters by removing the rubber gasket which they tout as creating a seal but in my experience actully makes the lids rise up off the canisters! A friend of mine who has collected Courtly Check for decades recalls that the enamelware pieces used to be made in India and that the quality issues arose when M-C switched production to China. If her recollection is correct, that would explain the recent quality issues to me.
While on-air, M-C's Rebecca does seem to stretch the fact that all M-C items are designed in Aurora, NY with the implication that more products are actually made there than in fact are. I liken her stretching here to the Beekman Boys raving about their production levels in Sharon Springs, NY -- yes, the BBs should be very proud of what they do to employ people in the US but we all know that they have sizable product lines at Target and elsewhere that they manufacture overseas.
Tsavorite, I do hope you will be very pleased with your tea kettle!
I have not seen a lot of complaints about that item, compared to the canisters anyway. You definitely will not find another one that looks like it. IMHO the FM Black combo is exquisite and quite unique.