I do have one point of disagreement. BF and I give one gift jointly to people. His mom got one joint gift from us for Christmas as did his dad as did each of my parents. If you give us each a seperate gift that is very sweet of you but that does not make me feel obligated to buy you two gifts from our household gifts budget and slap a tag on with different names to make you happy - especially when most likely I will have chosen both gifts anyway.
There's nothing wrong with joint gifts. I still buy things jointly with either my BF or my siblings when it comes to Christmas and birthdays. Sometimes what each individual can afford to spend is not going to get as nice a present as what two individuals can afford to spend.
The problem with the story in the OP is that one, it's two different households. Two, they're obviously not going in on it together out of a desire to get a really great present, they're doing it because they're just plain lazy (or whatever). Three, it's not even an inexpensive yet wonderfully thoughtful present. It sounds like half the time, it's just junk.
I'm with the person who wrote the original story all the way, except for the fact that she should have said "enough" much, much sooner. It sounds as though she ultimately was trying to give them gifts not just because she enjoyed it or could afford it, but to guilt them into giving her a better one. That's rather passive-aggressive, and obviously wasn't going to work on a group of people who just don't seem to care overmuch. A much better reaction would have been to accept that they were never going to give her anything thoughtful, and she should save her gift giving budget (time, money, and effort) for people who would value it and her.