For me it was "buy high quality pillow" because you sleep for one thrid of a day etc. I needed a new pillow anyway so I came to the store and bought the best they had. And it was ... ok. Like it's a fine pillow but my sleeping haven't improved really, it's basically the same. So I was disapointed :(
That's a good point too. The cheap warm face-grabbing cotton pillowcases with a bunch of extra slack suck, but silk is too smooth for me. I also like to wash my pillowcases a lot and silk doesn't care for that much. Pretty sure what I have now is high-count cotton, but it actually fits the pillow properly so there aren't corners hanging off.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I listened to this advice and splurged on a $60 or $80 "customizable" (it comes with 3 different layers, you combine them how you want) pillow and holy shit, I went from a 2-3 stack pillow 'wake up multiple times each night and re-tuck' to a 1-pillow man that doesn't need to touch my pillow until it's moved for some reason.
I won't even name the pillow because of the nature of the thread but man. New pillow life is pretty great. Sorry that you guys got burned on your shitty pillows. For what it's worth I also tried like 5 of the most expensive (not customizable, but all had something 'special' that made it better') pillows at the mattress store and they pretty much universally sucked.
Mines exactly how stiff I want it, stays cool in warm weather, doesn't stink of memory foam (I think it did at first, instructions were to air it out), and never goes soft.
Honestly I'll have to look but no I don't believe so. Just some random recommendation from a reddit comment a couple years, with multiple people praising this pillow and I'd just gotten a really nice new expensive king size bed so I said fuck it, pillow splurge time. I think I got 2 king size pillows for 160.
Edit- and I accidently got queen pillowcases instead of king and had to return them but they sent kings free of charge. so yeah, maybe get the smallest one sans pillowcase first and see if you like it. it's a big purchase but I certainly don't regret it. The site says it's $84 for the cheapest smallest single pillow. https://sleepgram.com/pages/adjustable-pillow