I agree. It's a bit more understandable when a brand has a unique feature, like Klein and Cannondale had with their original aluminum frames, was some years until others offered the same. I bought an early C'dale and was impressed with the torsional stiffness under sprinting, but it wasn't until years later that I began to realize the ride detriment to that in longitudinal stiffness. I hadn't ridden other bikes, I bought into the hype and great test results by Bicycling magazine. I improved the ride some by fitting the largest tires that would fit. Now, I would not get locked into one brand, but sample a lot of different brands and designs. I will say that I did like C'dale being made in USA, but back then, so were a lot of better bike brands. I was bummed when I read their frame manufacturing got moved overseas. Before that, I read about their forays into premium motocross bikes and 4-wheel offroad quad-bikes (including making the engines, IIRC), that was a huge money suck and IIRC resulted in their bankruptcy and reorganization. Long time ago. If I bought new, I'd still prefer a big name that I think will be around, for honoring the warranty. My Cannondale came with a lifetime frame (and fork?) warranty, and I registered my bike after purchase, I wonder if that is still good following their re-org decades ago?