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Its all relative Paul. I'm not going to deny that the US and European manufacturers are expensive, but they are also spending at least six to eight fold in time to build scopes compared to the Chinese or Taiwanese counterparts. As you say, the latter is mass produced, quantity over quality philosophy. Robotic arms instead of flesh and bones driving greater profit, but improved quality? hmmmm maybe with time?
So who wins? You buy one of these scopes, have to spend more money and commit your time to resolving matters which should have technically been addressed through R&D and QA. You've had your fair share of troubles as have others and I'm sure this has come at a cost. Alternatively, you pay more for an established instrument and get close to a turn-key imaging solution, be it minor tweaks to get it humming along. If the Chinese or Taiwanese manufacturers spent a similar quantity of time as the others, prices would climb, so its a trade off.
For the money that is out laid, the results are what I would expect and as such I'd be happy. Obviously everyone has different expectations. Whether they are realistic and obtainable is another discussion. With such a vast difference in quality between budget, mid spec and top end RC's, one can only compare results of a similar breed RC, so my previous post in reference in the 10" RCA is moot. The RCA series and those from deepsky instruments are mid spec instruments as opposed to the budget RC's coming out of China or Taiwan. What I was attempting to allude to however is that paying that bit extra can yield vastly different (superior?) results.
I want to be clear that I'm not attempting to put people off purchasing budget RC's. In many cases, they'll probably meet your goals and you will be happy with the output. There is a strong market for such instruments which will thrive with time. I do however suggest people review the facts and manage expectations. Comparing the differences between a 4k and 12k instrument can be the difference between night and day, no matter how much time and money you sink into getting the 4k instrument working. Its putting lipstick on a pig.
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