Yes, it is give and take.
Here in Pennsylvania, out of the more than 3,000 beekeepers, 13 are full time commercial operator. That means 2,987 are hobbyists, with a few sideliners thrown in.
We all know most commercial guys buy huge numbers of mass produced queens and cells from places that are doing little in the way of survivor stock or resistance breeding. We had a major producer from Florida a couple years back actually state in a state bee association meeting that they do NO selection or survivor program in their operation. Most of their customers (large commercial guys) will treat for mites themselves and leave little to the bees, meaning a hobbyist if buying those same bees, better be prepared to do the same. And yet, with few exceptions, most hobbyists buy from larger outfits and do little in the area of queen rearing themselves, or treat as they do. Most beekeepers put little faith in their own ability to better their stock or realize the benefits of raising their own queens, yet chase the idea that if they cut out a feral colony from farmer Brown's barn, that they will have better bees.
Beekeepers need to understand what they are buying. And that not everything is what it is claimed to be. On another recent thread, a study has shown Australian bees were of (almost) no resistance to mites. Yet I heard many bigger operators in recent years who were buying these packages, claim that they were great bees and anyone who said differently were just blowing smoke.
I'll say again, if you are comparing ferals to past poor performing commercial mega-produced stock, then yes, you may see an upgrade in your bees. Afterall, that bar has been set very low. But the only reason to make that comparison, is for the fact that beekeepers are not doing the upgrading to their stock on their own. If you truly had a breeding program, raised your on bees, and put a little faith in your own ability, the last thing you would do is run around getting excited about some bees down the street in a tree, that probably is the very swarm from someone Else's crappy hive a little bit further down the street.
Most feral stock came from at least a hive that survived a winter, IE., was strong enough to make it through winter, and healthy enough to actually swarm. That beats the standard bar previously mentioned every time. But that does not make feral stock even close to the claims and suggestions that some beekeepers over the past 20 years has made. But we sell the idea to ourselves very easily when we have crap in our hives to begin with. ;)