On the other side of that,.
Why should I, suffer an inferior product, when I buy a whole lot more cars than Johnny Christmastree? I’ve had McHenry couplers fail with 20 car trains, in the middle of a show on “dead level” modules before.[:$] Yet, I’ve run 110 car trains over those same modules with KD’s with never a failure. The only times I’ve ever seen a KD fail was when the car in question has an unscheduled meeting with the floor.
The OP’s root complaint IMHO is not one of specifically brand loyalty, but one of quality . There’s the rub. We want it cheap, but we don’t want any failures.
IMHO, I din’t care whose coupler it is, if it works well and will stand up to the stresses that a KD will tolerate. I would rather it be on the car when I purchase it and pay an extra 2 bucks than to have to purchase the couplers myself, and take the time (hey, my time has a cost too!) to install them. After all, RTR means ready to run, not ready to repair!