My grandfather kept a pen in his shirt pocket for 40 years and never once had to ask somebody to borrow one. There's a pattern there where the simple stuff just works and we keep swapping it out for things that need charging and updating. A four dollar pen that writes every time is hard to beat.

A washed pen and a rained-on pen are two totally different tests though. The cheap one probably just got lucky that the ink cartridge didn't flood, and the metal one could've had a loose cap letting water in. Doesn't really prove cheap beats expensive, just that pens are random like that.

Mounted mine under the shelf too but the game changer was adding a small hook next to it for the cape clips. Hear me out, the neck strip thing is really about your body remembering where things are without looking. Every time you have to search or reach you're breaking your focus and your flow on the cut. Fix the setup so your hands just know where to go and your shoulders will thank you at the end of a ten hour day.