It is good to beat the bush as something may come out
. Still, it is not a loud choir of objections over here to my quip
The most likely reason is that folks simply do not care or have not read it.
I had a Brompton and a Merc. The Merc was perfectly fine and even had a few things that the same era Brompton lacked ... an extra clip to retain the rear triangle when lifted and a bottle dynamo are the first two things that come to mind. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the Merc over the Brompton.
The Brompton has made some improvements since then. But presumably a clone would copy those as well.