The word "cheap" as I understand has different meanings in Brit. and Amer. English. (Some of these - Brit. and Amer. - might, naturally, apply to some posts in some fora.) The comedian Jack Benny portrayed a miserly (= Amer. cheap) character but is said to have been in real life a notably generous person. Learnt that in the last few minutes thorugh the magic of Google and YouTube!
As far as Bf. readers can know a comparison of Frank to J.B. can only be with the real J.B. What impresses me chiefly about him is that he mostly limits himself to bins affordable to the great majority of bird watchers, when he can easily, with his standing in the binocular field, have the pleasure of using without payment, and writing about, the more pricey and optically better models. Seems to me he helps the most people on this forum in the most useful way!