It all comes down to the fact that waterproof and quite very rarely come together, especially if you add durable to the equation. Even the high end clothing designed for hunting isn’t exactly that quite when waterproofing is factored in.
I never tried any of the CF stuff (except for a couple of long johns I have, gifted by a buddy who served many years ago), but I believe raised by wolves.
At the end of the day, in my experience and my friends’ experience, the cheaper stuff will almost always wear out significantly faster and will never perform the same as more expensive stuff. I have Arcteryx clothing some of which is 15+ years old, including a sweater and jacket that I wear daily in spring and fall and both look like new except for a couple of burn holes from camp fire and whatnot; things I don’t wear often can probably be sold as new with no tags on ebay or something and no one will be able to tell the difference. Friends who bought equivalent performance but cheaper clothing threw theirs to the garbage long, loooong time ago. One particular example, I bought an Arcteryx rain jacket almost at the exact same time my friend bought his, whatever the brand was. I paid twice as much. Both were Goretex and very similar otherwise (you could see mine was better made, but we didn’t really pay too much attention at the time). Long story short, mine had never let me down and I was always dry wearing it, it still looks like new after about 10 years of use; his kept him dry for less than two years and he would be wet if in the rain all day (ie extended period of time) from the beginning. Same with rain pants and my other friend. I bought, again, Arcteryx (lol, not a commercial for Arcteryx, but I am loyal to that brand for a reason) and he bought Patagonia for about half the price. His were not Gotetex, but whatever other proprietary thing. The pants he bought were perfect and he could wade in them for some time when properly tacked around and whatever, just as I could in mine. But then they completely crapped out after two or so years and being (properly) stored for the winter. Same thing with his matching jacket he bought at the same time, which lasted a bit longer. My pants are still like new. I want to say last year, but I think it was actually two years ago, when I spent over 12 hours in the rain hunting elk (it sucked and I didn’t find any that day) wearing these very jacket and pants and I was completely dry when I got home. When you look closer and pay attention, you can see that pretty much everything is different - material, stitching, overall “craftsmanship”, etc - and makes things like Arcteryx virtually bomb proof, it likely won’t get ripped when you catch a stick poking out and will simply last.
To the latter point, on the aforementioned jacket (not the rain one), the zipper broke about 4 years ago when I happened to be in Vancouver. I dropped it off at the Arcteryx store there and they shipped it back fixed to my home in Alberta a couple of weeks later (no charges). They called me before doing anything because they didn't have zippers the same colour anymore and I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with the lady discussing the colour options, lol. At the end, she suggested what she thought looked good by looking at my jacket and the collection of zippers in front of her, to which I said sure thing (she seemed to care more than I did) and it turned out better than it was before (zipper she chose is the colour of the greyish logo).
I also never paid full price for this type of clothing, but found/waited till I can find something I wanted on sale or clearance (people say it doesn’t happen, but it does).
So in regards to “breaking the bank”, I don’t think it does, even if you pay full price. Sure, you pay quite a bit upfront for this type of “specialized” clothing and equipment, but at the very least break even in the long run and likely win some or quite a bit, while at the same time being comfortable and unlikely run into inconvenience of shopping again, possibly often, etc. That is, of course, if you buy what you actually needed in the first place.
Lastly, in regards to sitting and walking, I don’t believe you will find anything that is suitable for both: you’ll either be called sitting or too hot walking. I simply layer up, depending on what I plan to do, which is never sitting, but some standing in one spot can be involved (call it planning to hunt according to the weather conditions sort of thing and if I start getting called, I simply move on). I also don’t have any specific hunting clothes, just cheap stuff or something (like pants) that isn’t any longer suitable for work, for example. A couple of weeks ago, I bought my first Icebreaker long johns that I stumbled upon being 50% off. Will see if they can replace a couple of layers of “regular” long johns I usually wear. Was also debating this year to buy some dedicated hunting pants, like Sitka or something else, but either miss sales and clearances or cannot justify spending the money, lol. It’s funny because I know for a fact, given my experience with other things, that I will likely never have to buy hunting pants again if I buy a pair of Sitka (unless I outgrow them in width or want something else or different), for example, but still can’t pull the trigger, lol. I am not much of a camo fan either and it is usually camo that I see on clearance.
Not sure if any of this stuff helps, but here it is, haha. Probably more in regards to breaking the bank than anything. To sum up this point, I believe the balance between cost and quality is going with high end stuff due to durability, comfort, and other factors mentioned above. I truly believe a guy cannot win there and there is a reason different outfits charge differently for their products. The other point, there has to be some sacrifice one way or the other in terms of moving and being hot and sitting and being cold because one often leads to the other, as in being comfortable sitting, then getting a bit hot walking and getting very cold on your next sit because of it. Even with wool: most of my underlayment is made of wool of wool blend and it can still get a bit chilli faster after breaking a bit of sweat, which should be avoided at all costs, imo. I’d rather be a little cold and dry than (temporarily) warm but sweating.
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