Not my take. I would expect anyone to be taken aback by similar 'unexpxected'. I would certainly be in contact with the maker. But, also being part of this online community I might bring it up here.
I've read a number of this poster's threads, and yes, maybe he's a proponent of Chinese made products - not a terrible thing...
I'm old enough to remember when anything Japanese was considered 'junk'... Certainly not the case for many, many decades. Same maturation process has happened all over Asia...
Wine from The US... it happens everywhere.
CHinese companies and goods have been difficult to work with - but that seems to be changing in a big way. And it's not some ubiquitous monolith. I'd say there's a serious and strong effort to greatly improve the world marketplace's concept of what goods from china means... DO I agree with their political system in place? Not something for discussion here...
Poster wants to stir up some controversy? Fine, when it has some basis to stand on...
This fork steerer tube doesn't come up to what I would consider general expectations of us uneducated users... so we're party, as viewers, to an experiment and inquiry which strikes home - good.
I have, over recent seasons, tried many chinese bike parts, and the vast majority were a big surprise, in a good way.
How Cane Creek responds will be telling and I'm interested.
just my opinion... as you have stated yours
Ride On
Yuri

EDIT: I wrote this while the OP was posting an update... so comments were based on all the prior posts. Still, comments apply, and it's good to see that the Brand company is concerned and working with the buyer... Yes, expectations of quality need to be upheld, at the same time 'quality' is often not a price related thing. Integrity has no price...