"Is that still the case?"
That's the OP's question. The answer is that is seems to still be the case that stuff bought from Chinese factories is of very inconsistent quality, and that the only ways to deal with that are to have someone over there checking each machine as it is crated, and someone over here testing each machine as it is unboxed. I have a pal who does this dance with welders. He reveives each shipment off the factory floor, and he fires up each machine when it gets here. He could probably just do it all over there if that was his only job, and he didn't live in Can. This company does probably 10-1 sales in the US, and they don't have him in the US firing up the machines. JUst the fact the US techs in this case are not quite as experienced, has resulted in the US product being a lot less consistent. So while the individual parts in the machine can be good, it takes an experienced person to take responsibility. The parts can change at any moment. The guy doing final quality control has to be a mature tech, he can't depend on everyone behind him having got it right, and just spotting the odd anomaly. He has to be able to cover all the bases.
I think this has created an opportunity for small outfits to perform in the first rank. As a consumer you take the risk that the guy you depend on may not be there. But as long as he is, the extensive hands on oversight by one guy can actually surpass what a large company is willing to do. In the old days the large company was king (and still can be). But you can also have these niche markets were particularly able techs step up and take on the whole quality control process. It is worth it for them because we are at a unique point in time where prices are tiny. mark-ups are huge, and the market has enlarged to embrace the reduction in price to the end user. It does create a cult of personality that is a little odd, but it still has a basis in fact.
The end user can respond to all this in a number of ways. The problem is that buying the unsupervised product is a bit of a rip-off. You are paying a big mark up but taking a risk. The risk is mostly worth it if you pay real wholesale. When one retailed the old stuff it was normally on the basis of a 20-50% margin. Today the margin can be 90%. So if you save say 20% going direct, you just assumed a lot of risk while only getting as little as a quarter of the margin in your pocket.. If you could save 90% of the final cost, but were faced with getting a machine you might have to modify, or re-build it would make more sense.
