I agree with you in regards to white zin, you shouldn't have to pay for it to taste good. But that goes against the wine industry. White zin is the most popular choice for light flavored meals and a lot of white pasta dishes so companies tend to make a bunch of cheap ones and then the good stuff. Red wines suffer the same downfall.
I agree it should be mostly opinion and personal taste. But with a post like this I try to stick to a balance of the pairing rules and personal taste. I feel too many people "push" their wine tastes with no regards to rules. Everyone wants to be "the wine guy" so to speak. And I would get strung up for this, but as far as the cheap white zin goes the best taste is actually, in my opinion, arbor mist. I say that because their whole market scheme is cheap good tasting wine for young women. Second to that I would say ziphor (I think), another cheap zin (box). Both of those are cheap and can be passed off as a higher quality then they are to someone who doesn't know and never sees the bottle.
And yea I think oktoberfest is it.