I'm no expert but here's my take:
The 02A model of the current Honda filter is made by Honeywell. Honeywell makes millions of filters for all different types of vehicles. With that much revenue at stake, why would they intentionally produce a product that would fail under normal circumstances thus causing damages in excess of 500 times the cost of their product? If that question doesn't reassure you then why would Honda purchase (and sell) millions of these filters and install them on their cars? Honda's legendaary reputation as a quality manufacturer of automobiles isn't worth a $7 filter IMO. I'm certain that Honda has spent millions of dollars (maybe even billions) researching and testing the Honeywell filters and they have another millions of dollars in warrenty repairs riding on the performance of Honeywell filters.
All of which leads me to the conclusion that under NORMAL circumstances, the Honeywell filter produces adequate filtering for your Honda's needs. By normal circumstances, I mean daily driver, grocery getter, work commute driving. Now if you are operating your Honda under extreme conditions, prehaps you should look to some of the more extreme duty applications but for 95% of folks, the Honda filter is just fine.
Some will point to the fiber endcaps to support their claims but my take on the issue is that the end caps are present only to provide a base to glue the media to. The end caps themselves don't filter the oil. If this was the case, then the metal end cap design would be inferior to the fiber end caps. Now, you can argue that the metal end caps provide more structural integrity to the filter but if your filter is collapsing under normal operating conditions, then the filter is probably not your biggest problem. Also, I have seen threads where people have cut open Honeywell filters and found it almost impossible to separate the fiber end caps from the media. The bond is very strong in most cases.
Having said all that, the only reason not to use the Honda OEM filters is that there are better choices available often for less money. I just picked up 5 of the PureOne filters using the AAP coupon code for $3.00 each. I will be using these when my stash of 02A's run out but I would not hesitate installing the 02A if I could get them for $3.00 each.