Did someone say we should be starting a big debate? Let me give this a go since starting debates is my specialty
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I tend to agree that the salt itself will not make your tank more or less successful.
However, this does not mean that the salt itself can be very helpful to get you there easier.
A lot of the folks who use the bare-bone salt use a ton of additives, calcium reactor, check with ICP, etc., to make sure their delicate SPS or more demanding LPS get what they need, and which they would not get from a basic salt alone. When you do this for some time, you tend to forget all the activities that run on autopilot, and when someone just inquires about one aspect, i.e., salt, the answer seems to be not taking into consideration everything that matters.
So claiming that no one needs to worry about the salt is not the advice I support, since with everything in reefing, it depends, and there are pros and cons.
On the lower end of the expectations, certain tanks are fine with only a good salt and regular water changes. On the lowest end of these expectations, a cheap salt might do the trick. On the higher end of the lower expectations, a better salt might give you better results without the need to worry about additives.
On the higher end of the expectations, there are several paths you can go - feel good about spending less on a salt and spend more money on one part, two parts, three parts, ICP-driven specific corrections, etc. It might make sense financially; I have not done the math. Alternatively, you set a higher baseline by being already closer to target parameters with a higher-quality salt, and then only fine-tune with some additives. Ultimately, both will get you similar or even the same results, but I claim that it is easier with a higher-quality/better-balanced salt.
The last aspect one can consider is how ‘clean’ the salt is (not necessarily how clean it mixes). The environment in which these are being produced is different. If you do not mind if your salt has some additional stuff in there that should not be in the salt, and that your ICP provider might not necessarily be able to identify, then you might not be willing to pay more for it.
There are reasons why one salt is more expensive than another; this is not one of the things in reefing which is mostly marketing. Raw ingredients and employee safety costs (e.g., if fluoride is added to the salt) determine the price, in addition to the sodium chloride production itself.
