If you want a Strat and don't care if it's Fender, look into the Peavey Predator. You can find them for $100-150 where I am, and they are made in the USA with two or three-piece bodies, great C-shaped maple necks, rosewood fretboards, etc., all made by CNC so the fittings are exact. A friend of mine has one completely modded out and it's a beautiful and great sounding guitar.
yeah those look cool and like a good affordable model to mess around with and mod it to your liking.
my main problem is that guitars are a thing where my rational thinking completely tunes out, because i can't really compromise once i really want certain instruments. so even if i got a predator, or even a real fender strat, i probably still would be curious about what other guitar i'm obsessed with. so it's better if i just don't buy any at all. and if i buy one it must be one i like and want 100%. sometimes that guitar is 200 and sometimes that guitar is 2000(which means i'll never buy it, probably). i just end up not buying instruments most of the time anyway and just fawn over them for extended periods of time.
EDIT: guitars are like skateboards to me. i could probably ride any deck, but there's some irrational stuff that might bother or stoke you out about the graphic or so, which has little effect on your skating actually, but can just be offputting. it's not really rational. it's definitely about aesthetics, nostalgia, and all this weird stuff. which is all unimportant if the instrument doesn't play well. but for a lack of a better way to describe it, i'm definitely a victim of guitar esoterics in this way. that's why i can't explain why i love some copies of famous guitars, while others are kind of unsettling to me.
i know this makes little sense. i'm the type of person that obsesses over a screw in the wrong place just because i feel it isn' right. but some guitars are just like wow, everything on this is perfect in it's own way. that's something that actually makes me want to play more, even if it sounds stupid.