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The basic problem is that we buy stuff that has a relatively small market. The manufacturers are trying to make a profit while maintaining the affordability of what is basically hobby equipment. Those manufacturers who provide well sorted gear can generally only do so by charging premium prices - the rest put out stuff that generally works, but known problems and basic design flaws often remain unfixed.
I have generally chosen to buy at the lower end of the market and the only things I can recall that were fully up to scratch were two Televue Barlows and Nebulosity software - everything else has required anything from tweaking to major rebuilds. But I knew that before I purchased and was prepared to work around the idiosyncrasies and put together systems that worked OK despite the failings of the manufacturers -the alternative was no systems at all.
I can see how someone might be p**d off if they found that their expensive high end equipment did not come up to standard. But the rest of us should really not be too surprised if that $1500 OTA turns out to be not quite as good as a $5000 OTA with apparently similar specs. Of much more concern to me is the odd manufacturer who refuses to supply spares so that users can repair their low end equipment when it breaks down - but that is another issue.
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