Let me spend 6 hours looking at slightly different screwdrivers and keycaps and dodgy anime merch and ICs that haven't been used since 1988. Way better than 84 pages of KWJIBO brand home goods.
Ali express isn't that different from other websites, there are certain brands I know and trust, or if something is cheap enough, I will take a risk on it being good. I actually just bought some stuff there yesterday.
I do! If you're patient and careful, you can still find some good creators on there. But, it's almost not worth it to even look anymore. Etsy doesn't even pretend to give a shit about all of the fake shops and misleading listings. Unfortunately, I haven't found any good alternatives yet either.
I haven't used amazon personally in years and I haven't missed it a bit. The biggest problem is trying to order stuff at work because my employer doesn't care that amazon is a shit company. If I put a purchase order in for a niche part from Joe's Niche Part Depot I just get a response of "We don't have them registered as a supplier in our system, but amazon has that part too and it's only $3 more there so we're just going to get it there."