Here in South Africa, the pharmacist is obligated to offer a generic to you, irrespective of which medicine it is. Some days I just go sure, other times I specifically want the non-generic because it is slightly (at least to me) better.

It works that way in the US too. These were different drugs, and there is no generic for the expensive one.

In my case, there was zero reason to prefer one over the other. That’s not true in all cases.