Ok,I'll bite.
- This is fairly clear.
I've been in the motor industry since 1996. I've never seen a genuine Japanese-made wheel,being cast or forged fail in service. I've knocked back several cars for rego due to having buckled knock-off taiwanese wheels,and had one car need to be towed away as it had cracks through half of the spokes on both of the near-side wheels. I've never had to do that to a car with TE37's...
Cheap stuff is cheap for a reason. All the manfacturers you listed above that have used cast wheels likely weren't charging $150 each for them. There's nothing wrong with cast wheels,provided that the castings are done properly,using quality material. Cheap stuff is made to a price more than to a recipe. A brand new wheel that costs $150 retail is not going to be good quality. It might be stamped with VIA and JWL,but that doesn't mean that the design was actually tested to those standards. Can anyone seriously say that stuff out of China is strictly quality controlled,or that copyrights hold any weight there? Ask anyone who bought a knock-off Greddy SR20 sump a few years back if you want an example. Most of those were porous castings...not a desirable feature in an oil sump.
I'm sure plenty of people will get by perfectly well with knock-offs. Some won't. Some people like to do things well,some like things to do things well enough.
What people buy is up to them. I won't buy copies,and I won't encourage anyone else to either.
Justin...