I've always liked ugly sticks too.
Only reasons I went with okuma is:

Availability/easy- this place has okuma combos pre spooled ready to rock, I buy this I can go fishing right now.

Price- $10-20/per unit buying 9 rods adds up. Plus I'm cheap so there is that.
If I depended on them to make a living then the initial money would matter less. I don't buy cheap tools for the job site, but a diy'er isn't likely to buy multiple $100+ saw blades to do 1 or 3 jobs.

There is also a strong argument for buy once cry once. If I see 50 days a year trolling that is a TON of fishing for me. Wife and kids and work and church and scouts and baseball and...