A few states have "melting point" laws, Illinois is not alone in this. It was a misguided attempt at crime control and the idea dates quite a ways back, to the 70's. At the time the crime rate was pretty high and these inexpensive guns kept showing up at crime scenes.
First, the GCA of 1968 banned the import of many of the small inexpensive guns. Then manufacturers, in classic "work-around" fashion, just started importing the parts and assembling them here.
Many of the Heritage .22's get caught by these laws, along with other guns. The poly frame guns don't, either because the law may specifically state "metal frame" guns or because technically they don't "melt". They may seriously deform but not actually turn to liquid.
Here is a somewhat outdated paper on the subject:
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6828&context=jclc
I don't have a problem with inexpensive guns. I have a few Taurus handguns, and no longer have a few more, and while not very refined they certainly are serviceable weapons. The odds of your having a problem is bit higher as you go down in price point. But it's no matter to me. I have the patience and the experience to work through the issues. Frankly a reliable sub-$300 pistol is quite a value. I see them sub-$200 used. I've had one Taurus that had to go back to the factory. The rest of the problems were relatively minor and I fixed them myself. Magazines, magazine releases, extractors, and slide stops are the most common minor issues.
Frankly, I've had to send S&W's back at a (slightly) higher rate than the Taurus guns. But the "better" guns seem to either work perfectly, or have a serious problem. The less expensive guns are more often plagued with more minor problems. Sometimes more than one.
I've always said that the less expensive guns should be left to the more experienced shooters. We shoot a lot. We've gone through a bunch of guns. We know how to deal with them. I don't get why an experienced shooter would make a big deal of it and bad-mouth them. They should have run into problems here and there with all sorts of guns. I know I have. It's just the way it is. It's not like it's the only gun I have to shoot. Plus you gain a lot of general knowledge working with them.
So do the new guys a favor. Buy one and run it until you're sure of it. Then sell it to someone who needs it. That's where mine seem to go. Neighbors, their adult children, my wife's single friends.
Then I go back to my expensive guns....until another one comes along.