Gareth, you took the words out of my mouth there
Even with the credit crunch thing going on businesses are not respecting themselves by using this kind of thing. Ok we all want value for money but there is no reasoning or methods to arrive at a final product for a lot of these low cost logos. By following understanding and reasoning of the clients business requirements, decisions are made as to a logo and branding they can carry forward for many years to come.
When I look to design logos and branding I'm thinking of the long term future, you only have to look at the big main brands to see their logos have not changed in over 50,60,70 + years. It's important to qualify decisions so companies can portray themselves properly.
One thing that does not help is that logos are also a personal thing where as it is hard to give a ROI on a logo, although we know good and bad logos when we seem them, how does it portray the business and how can you measure its ROI from just its logo?
Would you do business with a company that has a clipart as its logo?