Mitch is right, you're doing something different, however good it might be.
It's also worth noting that sautéing / deglazing / making a pan sauce is one particular set of techniques among countless others. It happens to be central to how I think about cooking and sauces, but that just reflects my background. The world is full of brilliant cooks and chefs who hardly ever use these techniques. They might have different opinions about pans than I do. You're doing your own version of a pan sauce. I trust you that it's delicious. I'm also pretty sure it tastes different from ones made from fond.
I staged at a high-end sea food restaurant several years ago, one that was especially known for its sauces. I didn't witness a single pan sauce being made in my 2 days there. They cooked about half the fish on teflon, half on spun steel. A couple of dishes they cooked on a cast iron grill pan. Different visions, different styles, different tools.
You're bringing up money ... I haven't shopped for pans in ages, but I see perfectly good looking disk-bottom stainless pans, and even some clad ones for cheap. There's used to be a decent looking line of pans exclusive to K-mart. Another possibility is commercial aluminum pans (just bare aluminum). These work as well as the best ss pans, as long as you're not cooking with very acidic ingredients. And they're cheap and nearly indestructible. The cheaper ss pans probably wouldn't hold up too long to abuse, but you've said that's not an issue for you.
