I used to go to the The Shadows concerts before and after they re-appeared in the mid seventies and although I knew that Jet, Brian & John used Fender bass guitars, as well as John's Burns, I just assumed that Alan and Mark used Fender too, when they weren't playing their Aria / Alembic basses et al, that never looked right in The Shadows.
Then Alan suddenly appeared with a Precision bass, around 1981 when all the band suddenly went back to red guitars. Of course I assumed it must be a Fender, why would they use a cheap copy ? The point is that it sounded right and no one really knew, it was only because Alan told me that I knew, as I was never close enough to see the headstock.
More recently I worked with Mark Griffiths who told me about his gear and his collection of Squiers, though he had some Fenders too. It made me wonder and I took more interest in Squier guitars after that. Back in 1980 I had a problem finding a good Strat, so I ended up with Tokai Goldstar Sound Springy sound Strats for around £155 each and the were superb. I later learned that it was Tokai's excellent products that inspired Fender to build some competition under the Squier brand. I still think that those early Tokais were better that the Squiers - marginally. I still have one and it's as good as my 1962 Fender Strat.
There's no doubt that there's a 'snobbery' thing going on with what's written on the headstock, I suffered it myself a few years ago but these days I don't care. I saw ELO a couple of years ago live and there were two Squier Classic Vibe Strats playing big parts in that show.
The main factor will always be the player, not the instrument, echo or amp. As long as a guitar plays and sounds 'right' and stays in tune, that's really all that matters. Will we ever accept that though ?