As for cameras ... i'd imagine lens quality is a big deal. I have a couple pretty good DSLRs and while an iPhone 6 for instance, can take excellent pictures, my shooting friends (professional photographers, not the local camera club) still argue over Nikon or Canon ... Not over Nikon, Canon, or Apple. If an iPhone was really as good as a top-end pro camera, all the pros would be saving a couple or several thousand dollars and buying only iPhones. .... it seems to me.
On the big photo gear sites, gray-market gear is identified as such. And, as far as I know, there is No warranty service available from anywhere on those items. You want to sneak around the rules, you forego the protections.
In any case ... the issue here is what? Shimano wants to sell products for as high a price as the market will bear? And wants to limit people making end-runs around its pricing structure by using overseas sales?
I can pretty much guarantee what any of us would do if any of us owned small businesses and were losing profits because our stuff was being sold like that. it is really easy to demonize others, particularly a big corporation, but if I were watching my bottom line shrink because people were stretching the rules I would take action for sure.
I really don't understand all the outrage. If you think the parts are overpriced, don't buy them. if you think the prices are high but really want the parts, pay the price.
Shimano has allowed people in the U.S. to buy overseas and save a Lot of money for a long time now. But at no time did they "owe" that option to the U.S. customer base.
Now they are changing policies to protect their income stream. Basically, we got a big break ... and now we act as though we "earned" or"deserved" a big price break?
That's like a thief saying, "I stole it fair and square, how can the cops confiscate it? Due process, man!"
I watch the TV show "Live PD" occasionally. It is hilarious seeing idiots ask for their weed back after being busted for possession.
While no actual crime was committed ... we have no more "right" to low overseas prices than a thief does to his stolen goods, or a pot-smoker to his pot (in some states.) if you don't see value in the product at the price, don't buy it.
Pretty sure that isn't edging into the intellectual realm of "Rocket Science." Pretty sure it is too simple a concept to even be mentioned in Econ 101.