I agree completely. It's worth it to look around because you don't know what you're going to find.

That said, yes I do live in the US. Traditionally, outlets were created as a way for brands to sell overstocked, out of season, and slightly defective clothing directly to consumers at a lower price. I'm assuming based on your post the UK outlets may very well operate under this model. If that's the case, you'd be silly not to check them out because it's the same quality and clothing that you would find/would have found in their normal store.

Unfortunately, here in the US at least, the business model changed. Companies realized how popular they were among consumers and opened more and more outlets. With this, they began to make cheaper/lower-quality clothing to stock in these outlets for these bargain hungry consumers. It's important to note that these clothes (with the exception of the clothes that are truly overstocked/out of season/slightly defective) were never offered in the regular store. They are made specifically for the outlet. Naturally, these clothes cost less. But you aren't getting the same deal as you did historically because these clothes are actually of a lower-grade.

So when they say MSRP is $75 and the outlet price is $30, it's not that much of a deal. The MSRP is a completely arbitrary number because it was never even offered in the normal store. It's an inferior product that is worth close to $30 anyway.

Here is a great article on the topic.