if it is about smiles per miles per bahts spent or flying on the clouds with reliability which is what dirt riding is, it is klx or crf, worth the extra price and actually it is not a premium, it has to be that price to handle tough rides.
if you dont have a budget, then you can put knobbies and do some suspension mods on a honda wave or honda sonic and do trails too as i am sure they can go as lifan goes but no flying on the clouds of course.
i have ridden a converted sonic with knobbies and suspension mods for a while and it was going well on rough terrain without any problems but not good for long distance of course which lifan might offer more acommodation.