Remember when there was an epidemic of BAD GAMES on the market. Games rushed to market when they were not ready??? STARFIGHTER??? and all the patches and bugfixes that had to be released???
you sound like its a thing of the past, while I get the impression that it happens more and more with every year that pass..
however, reading your entire post tells me that we agree on everything.
I used to work with repairing Toshiba Copiers, and it was really common in the industry for one company to make the whole internal machinery, and for another to just put on their own plastic covers and logos. So in theory you'd have many companies with different copier brands, but the internals are exactly the same.