All of the China discussion, while interesting and something that I definitely have opinions on, seems to be trending a bit political. And in order to really have the conversation, including addressing causes of certain factors, it would definitely become a very political conversation. So we'd probably be better off not heading down that road here.
As for discussing the negatives or positives of this forum compared to the other forum, I like it here. I try not to judge the pricing of lights that are popular elsewhere, because I do like nice things. I admit, though, it's hard not to think that there's more than just quality behind some of the price tags over there... Not that I'd dare say that there (and I'd have to register an account to do so, as I don't have one there), for fear of banishment. Not my kind of place in all honesty.
As far as the quality (price not-withstanding) of lights, here, there, or elsewhere, I try to leave that to the end-user to think about. I understand that USA manufacturing costs more, and I understand a lot about the reasons why (and again, I'm not going to discuss that here, because it gets political faster than my D4 heats up), and I don't fault people for supporting that. I also understand some companies have pricing concerns regarding lifetime warranties (and, hell, even warranties that are actually honored - wow, that got directly back to the thread topic quick), and I don't fault people for liking or supporting that either. But I do take a lot of issue with the "tactical" and "operator" mentality, as well as the attitude taken over there against people who question any of it.
As far as what kind of commercial accounts are allowed here, and the terms under which they're moderated, I don't really have any issues. I question the claim that this forum is contaminated with "dozens of shills & affiliate code parasites". Yes, there are some members who offer discounts to our forum members, and affiliate codes are part of that process. But if you're really taking issue with that process, there's a whole lot more internet you need to take on first. And here, it is confined to certain subforums that you don't ever have to visit if you don't want to. Me? I think Neal's Deals and freeme's offerings (and the others, too) have their place. I understand when I click freeme's link, that he's probably making money somehow. But at the same time, I couldn't go to banggood and say "give me a discount code for X" myself. Freeme? He can say "Look at this, all these people check my discount codes, give me some good ones and I'll bring you traffic and sales... and you can cut me in a little bit, too". Or any of the others. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that, it's paid advertising.
I understand the position Klarus has taken. I work for the largest North-American distributor of a product sold internationally, and though we are not the manufacturer, we provide the after-sales service. We also expect our authorized dealers to provide an initial level of service to their customers. Recently one of our dealers had been buying product from eBay from Australia, undercutting us. How do you think we felt when we were asked to provide service to that dealer? We of course refused, and the manufacturer backed us up. Klarus appears to be trying to do something similar, which I understand the basics of: protect your dealers and your pricing scheme and your customers. However, they did not do this in an effective manner, and their communication was also awful.
Klarus might instead have posted something like the following:
Klarus would like to advise their customers to only buy from authorized Klarus dealers. [insert resource to find an authorized dealer]. In particular, [list of websites] has been reported as sometimes selling counterfeit Klarus products, and these places are not authorized dealers. Buyer beware: If you buy from those places, they won't provide the kind of after-sales service you can expect from an authorized dealer. We can't guarantee the authenticity of the product, if you purchase from those dealers.
And then I'd probably combine it with a new product announcement and a "where to buy/when to buy" link or something.
As for myself, I haven't had issues with Banggood. I'm extremely wary of aliexpress, and I've only bought from a few confirmed legitimate stores there (like Jaxman and Convoy). I haven't used the other websites; in some cases because I'm just not familiar with them, but with fasttech and gearbest, it's because of what I've heard about them.