Watched a guy lay a corner with a $12 trowel and it beat my $60 one all day

I was on a job in Denver two weeks ago next to an older guy named Ray who has been laying brick for 30 years. He pulled out this old worn trowel that looked like it came from a flea market and I thought it was gonna be a long day for him. But watching him butter a brick and cut a corner, the blade was dead flat and the handle fit his hand perfect from all those hours of use. My fancy trowel has a curved blade that feels nice out of the box but it fights you when you need a clean cut on a 45 degree corner. Ray did 400 brick to my 320 that day and his joints looked better than mine. I went home and spent an hour flattening the blade on my old backup trowel with a diamond stone. Has anyone else found that a broken in cheap trowel beats a new expensive one once you get the blade right?