Everything depends on the handle
A paper gift bag is judged at one point: where the handle meets the bag. That join takes the entire load every time the bag is lifted, and when a bag fails it is almost always the paper tearing at the handle rather than the handle itself breaking.
A die-cut handle has no separate component to fail, which makes it clean and cheap — but it also means the paper carries everything at the cut edge. Board weight and top-edge reinforcement are what decide whether it holds.
Test it the way customers use it
Load the sample to the weight it will actually carry and lift it repeatedly, including picking it up from a table by one side rather than lifting it squarely.
Tearing starts at the corners of the die cut, not in the middle, so that is where to look after the test rather than at the handle itself.
