I have only purchased one cake stencil. One of the tiny connections tore as I was cleaning it during the cake decorating and now is useless. $10.95 down the drain. I don't think that the stencil was any thicker than what I can find in the stencil section at any hobby store.
Now I cut gumpaste/fondant with my Cricut and apply it to the cake instead of trying to stencil it on. Cleaner and much easier to do, IMHO.
I have used several times the culinary stencils, which are the same as the designer stencils. And I haven't had any problems with it. You just have to be careful when cleaning it.
Laura
I tried using a regular craft store stencil the other day, it was too thick/too stiff to easily manipulate around a round cake without causing marks, even on crusted BC. Although I am still just learning the whole cake decorating thing so I was probably not doing it correctly. But this was my experience with a regular craft store stencil so far. 
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