[stoppingdown]

Probably it's a matter both of price and target audience (the two things are obviously bound): for the Otus, the intended audience is very competent, so it's quite advisable not to piss it off, and on the other hand the high price covers higher costs in QC. For the other lenses the audience is the one who can spend some money but is not competent, so they aren't able to tell about the defects we're talking of, being satisfied in exhibiting a famous brand. After all I've seen tons of people glorifying their SEL-1670 by posting low resolution photos that are supposed to show off how sharp the lens is... (*)

 

After all it's the same phenomenon that I see in fashion, where some corporates have started to buy cheap stuff made in China and stamp their brand on it just because lots of people can't tell the difference with the real higher quality stuff but are just happy to carry the brand around.

 

(*) In one case - but only one - I've actually seen sharp photos from border to center, so I think that the design is ok, it's really the QC that misses.