Yup - got it in one. Bottom of the line Taiwan Alpha. The only thing I've seen with worse faders is the little JBL "Musicmix" that came out with the original EONs (AKA Fisher Price "My First Mixer").
M
Lets not forget that one science fair mixer where the pots were screened onto the PCB.
I recall one very early cheap brit mixer that used rotary trimmers for audio controls.
Then there's the Jung Poon hand grenades that would break if you looked at then cross-eyed. Those motivated Alps to made their affordable K(orean) fader, before that the cheapest Alps fader that didn't suck was several dollar more each.
Faders are always a difficult design decision. Easy to second guess after the fact. I lost one argument with the guy who's name was on all the buildings about which fader to use in my last big recording board. Hint: I wanted to use the expensive Alps (before the K fader was available). Alps saved my ass, when they introduced the K fader.
JR