Nah, it's pretty fair to recommend against Baofeng if the person wants to actually make regular, long-term use of their radio, especially for transmission. This guy did some tests with a UV5R to show just how out of [FCC] spec it is https://imgur.com/a/up2ne -- the spurious emissions are clearly noticable. Or watch this video, it's almost scary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs8twTaO62Y Anyways, you can get a totally capable HT for $100. In general I don't think anyone is intentionally gatekeeping. Maybe a couple people, but overall most amateur radio operators just want quality signals coming in :)