>>138692"Not broken so don't fix it" only works sometimes when the level of discrimination for quality is below average. Sometimes it becomes more clear why people like more sophisticated things when one considers all of the factors involved in the decision-making process.
When hiking, climbing, biking, or otherwise exerting yourself, you sweat. You do this whether it's raining or not. In PVC or other non-breathable material, that sweat accumulates on your skin and clothes, and gets you wet underneath your rain gear. It has nowhere to go, so it doesn't go anywhere. Your rain gear might be waterproof, but you still get wet in the rain because the material is non-breathable. With a breathable material like Gore-tex, on the other hand, the moisture from your sweat can evaporate, keeping your skin and clothes dry. This is big. It means that you can stay dry when sweating in the rain. The breathable functionality may not be needed for standing still or walking slowly, but when you're backpacking out in the middle of nowhere, do you really want to be pinned to one spot just because it's raining?
Considering the fact that wetness and cold can kill in places like the mountains, most people consider staying as dry as possible to be a pretty big deal and invest in a decent set of waterproof/breathable rain gear, generally that uses Gore-tex. If you at all sweat while outdoors, and staying dry is at all important to you, I'd strongly recommend using a waterproof/breathable material instead of "cheapo" PVC.
