I have installed probably 5 different Ali Express units. Yes, they do vary in quality, but the main difference from an audio standpoint is the main chip and the amps. The particular unit that I installed has the newest "cpu" with a significant amount of cores. This greatly improves the performance and the ability to multitask. This makes the music experience more pleasant, since the unit can quickly handle multiple chores without bogging down. The amplifier chips have kind of plateaued over the last year and provide very good signal response and adjustability. The biggest change is the price to performance. There is a lot of competition and the performance that you thought would cost a lot of Ali Express money has gone down significantly.
There are still a few quirks with menu choices, but it is significantly better than three years ago. Apple Carplay and Android Auto really make things easier, but you always have native Android.

Sometimes the usb ports, front or back, do not provide a lot of power to charge. I have had cheaper units where the two back usb ports can only be used one at a time for files. The unit I have has a front end power usb that charge faster (no file transfer), but I am not sure of the back. My usb drives are in the glove compartment.