I thought I was buying a premium, reputable brand of shotgun
The Nova is a low-end gun. Benellis are really expensive, and Benelli wanted to tap into the market that Remington and Mossberg were splitting with very little genuine competition.
What made you believe that a plastic molding is "premium" when compared to the machined steel of an 870? The Nova shoots nicely, and offers a better rib, metal finish etc., than the 870. They have to save money somehow, to sell it for the same price. Evidently, they figured they didn't have to make the gun useful as a jackhammer bit.
Benelli has a unique autoloading action design. That drives their high-end sales. It has nothing whatever to do with pump actions. They could have chosen to make a high-end pump, or a low-end pump. Either way, their reputation is built on their autoloaders. Some of them, while solid, precisely-fitted and ergonomic, can't be all that expensive to build, but they work
really well in adverse conditions and for high-volume shooting, so Benelli can charge good money for them, and people are quite willing to pay it.
Brands matter, but they're not everything. Remington's 870 is a helluva shotgun. Few owners are unhappy with them, and many have a pseudo-religious attachment to them. The 11-87? Not so much.
I shoot with a guy who has a collection of 870s, which he loves, and a recently-purchased Benelli Cordoba, which he absolutely
loves and wants to augment with a 20 gauge and then some more, even at the obscene price they charge for the thing. He goes and does high-volume no-limit no-plug dove shooting in Mexico. An 11-87 he bought based on his 870 experiences gave up on him really quickly in the heat; the Cordoba just keeps shooting.
You've got to look at the individual gun, not the brand.
Remington's 700 is a world-class firearm if a tad expensive these days; the 710 and its siblings, big green R notwithstanding, are not worth buying even at a deep discount.
That said, I avoid bashing walls with my firearms, I don't care if we're talking about surplus guns with head-basher buttplates like a Mosin or Mauser, or nice walnut bits labeled Browning or Weatherby.
