Gin Friends: If it is London Dry Gin, does it matter how cheap it is?

I have an e-mail list for people I meet that like gin. I send out messages a few times a year about new gin I have tried and occasionally organize events. Last weekend we got together to answer the question in the title by a blind taste test. By London Dry I meant predominant juniper flavour (so not heavy botanicals like Hendricks) and not sweet. The contestants were:

1. A home brew gin with juniper and other botanicals added to cheap vodka.
2. Boomsma 
3. Boodles
4. New Amsterdam
5. 5 O'Clock Gin (at $7 US the cheapest entry) 
6. Beefeater 

The entries are shown below. Look at those beauties! The women are quite attractive, too. 

    

We did not get a complete consensus of opinion, but the general view was that the cheap 5 O'Clock Gin was the worst. I thought it had a slight chemical taste that was quite unpleasant, but since I poured the blind samples my opinion was not truly impartial. The general favourite was Boomsma, with Boodles and Beefeater close seconds. New Amsterdam was actually quite sweet so not really a dry gin that could be compared to the others and the same with the home brew which was more strongly botanical. Unfortunately we didn't get any higher end gin to compare (Victoria Gin and Phrog are local and in the right class). We will have to revisit this question, although unfortunately we can say that if you buy cheap gin it won't taste as good. However, the difference is not strong when you put it in a G&T. 

We had food and they enjoyed my view.

   

We had a couple of ideas for the next event. We could compare locally made gins. I know that Endeavour Gin from Liberty Distillery on Granville Island is quite good. We could stack it up against Schramms, Wallflower (from Odd Society), Longtable, and Victoria Gin. I am sure we could find another one to get us to six again. The other idea is to address the question, "does cheap gin and fancy tonic make a better G&T than fancy gin and cheap tonic? And is fancy gin and fancy tonic just too much?".