As far as best network goes, yes it depends in the city etc but there are always best networks for 99% locations in a country. I gave an example in another comment of Viettel vs VTC in Vietnam and Zain vs STC in Saudi Arabia.

I mean obviously it's cheaper to buy local plans. You can't compare local plans to travel eSIMs.

Which locations are you traveling to? Generally, I have the best quality to price ratio for North America, Europe, South East Asia, China and Japan. I saw your comment history and you visited Japan. The cheapest eSIM on eSIMDB in Japan for 5GB shows $2.42 via eSIM DOG [0]. But ... that's for a breakout IP in Hong Kong. That introduces latency on your network. So lets you want to move to a Japan IP, eSIM DOG doesn't have one. Their most expensive option is $7.49 which is a 3x price increase and that comes with a UK breakout IP. Now, contrast that to Akariq where you get 5GB for $4.86 and a Japan IP + NTT Docomo network [1] which has the best coverage and reliability. So yeah, I am generally the cheapest in at least those 4 regions for the quality I provide. I sell the best possible option option in that country and avoid selling junk eSIM plans.

[0] https://esim.dog/jp

[1] https://akariq.com/en/esim/jp/