I mostly use bicycle or tally ho just because when i perform, people tend to destroy the deck.
I don't know how or why, but if they just have to take a card for example, they bend it and crush it in such a way that couldn't even been described in "Marlo's Crimp Conjuring".
For the second question: think about those who doesn't like in the US: any deck is strange and unfamiliar.
Plus, i don't understand why people would get suspicious if they see a non-standard deck.
I mean, you're there to perform magic, not feeding a diffident fawn trying not to scare him.
So, i would never worry about a thing: i'm the performer, i choose my own equipment. You'll never tell a pianist to play with a different piano cause you're not used to that!
The first question: higher price doesn't mean higher quality. Design and aesthetic has a cost as well.
To be fair, i was satisfied with some non-standard decks (and not to look biased, but most had been from T11).
I made a post on that (that hasn't been considered very much) in response to another user's thread discussing about the lack of efforts of some brands (Fontaine.. cough..cough..) which launch cards with high prices without any change in quality (Bee/Aristocrat stock, at least?) nor in design.
I still don't have knowledge to make a constructive criticism on the subject, so all about this last part could be considered as a personal opinion, that can be reviewed at any moment with further data.