I have never worked in the "Pro" industry per say but I'm again versed with most of the gear. I spent many years on the road playing guitar in a Rock band and we used a great deal of Behringer stuff from consoles to crossovers etc. My old guitar tech to this day uses Behringer amps in his HT set-up. Main reason is he can get them far cheaper then consumer amps. I went through a stage when I ran all Crown stuff but that was a long time ago.
As for the marketing part. Yes your right marketing of course plays a role as Burr Brown is a respected name and they are easy to promote but for every large company that I have worked for, the engineers spec it, and marketing figures out how to sell it, not the other way around. They must spec it for a reason..............and last time I checked most engineers didn't give a you know what about marketing.
