Affordable medical grade skin care brand?

Any esthetician I’ve seen had said that any basic skin care brand is basically “crap”. They are all the same. They treat the skin at the very surface level but don’t help the root of the problem. All of them root for medical grade skin care and claim that you can get them for just as good of a price as you can any of the other skin care products you were already buying. I haven’t found that to be the case.... coming from someone who has has good results with Kiehls cleanser, The Ordinary serums, Mario Badescu moistures, etc.. I’m really not spending too much on those products. But I’ve gone out and shopped around for other medical grade products and they are all 2-3x what I’m spending now. I want to step up my skin care came but these are real expenses.. maybe in the future when I’m (hopefully) making more money. But for now, does anyone know the most affordable, yet still backed by science, skin care brand?