I live in the balmy westcountry so winter tyres arent really needed.

do more expensive summer tyres (continential etc), wear better than budget or mid-range (ie prestivo/kumho)?

I think it depends what you mean by ‘wear better’ – I’ve had a set of mid range (Firestone fuel savers, I think?) tyres that seemed like they were going to last forever, at the expense of grip and feeling… They’d arrived on a car we bought second hand, and I swapped them off long before they’d reached their tread limit!

<10k a set is not helping my bank balance…

What car? What tyres currently?

If you are putting on some performane tyre like Toyo Proxes or similar, then you can’t expect them to last long as they use softer rubber to improve grip at the expense of lifetime.
Equally, if you are driving round in an M3 or something similar, then you won’t get long life out of the tyres. Speaking to a bloke at work who is looking to get rid of his 911. He’s just put two new tyres on the rear; they last 9k miles max and it cost him £450 for a a new pair!!

I’d expect the ‘eco’ tyres to last well.
I have been using Matador MP44 or MP46 tyres for the last few years which grip well & seem to last a decent amount of time. I do at least 23k miles/yr and don’t have to replace the front less than once/year but I am not sure of actual mileage I am getting out of them.

generally speaking yes.

For a similar performance (grip / rolling resistance / water evacuation) a ‘premium’ tyre will wear better.

It’s never so black & white as that but that is the general trend.

<10k miles is exceedingly short for an average tyre life. What car / tyre size are we talking about?

(I know there will lots of alternative comments but I get paid to develop tyres)

A3 TDi Quattro. 225 45 R17’s, 15k a year of commuting over Dartmoor B roads.

last set was Prestivo. no funny tyre wear patterns, I don’t drive like a grandad but i’m not doing donuts for fun either.

Rears are tending to wear faster than the fronts.