rep or gen, it's just a name.
If rolex would make a new watch tomorrow, without anyone knowing, and put another not existing brand-name on it and sold the piece for what the costs actually are without the rolex margin, then everybody would say that brand is just not up to a rolex, but in fact it is.
When quality is exactly the same or approaches the gen, then well your are just paying for a name.
And then some say it is the feeling that is different when wearing a gen compared to a rep, well that's just something you create in your head and is there because of all the brand recognition you grew up with.
Why is one brand more popular then other brands in some countries, because marketing develops that. Same thing goes for reps.
Look at how far someone as TC has come. The quality of his reps are amazing, but people are still saying well it's not yet the holy grail.
Why? because it doesn't match the original product for 100% but maybe 97,5%.
But if you just look at the rep like TC's and see what effort has gone in there and how high the quality is, is it then still an inferior watch or do you just have to look at the watch and judge it on his own and respect the quality you buy for the price you pay...