This is likely tied into something I call "the tyranny of the China price". Basically, years of offshore production have set customer expectations and market-c

This is likely tied into something I call "the tyranny of the China price". Basically, years of offshore production have set customer expectations and market-competitive pricing at a certain level. If you want to on-shore production, you have to achieve that same price point (or close to it) to sell your product. Of course, on-shore labor costs are probably going to be higher, as are rent, materials, environmental compliance, and probably a few supply chain contributions. So to meet the price point, you either have to automate everything (reduce labor cost) or cut corners on something else. In a lot of cases, that "something else" is some combination of materials quality and quality assurance. In summary, it's not that producing on-shore inherently reduces quality or that there's no domestic expertise left, it's that to maintain the same end product quality you often have to significantly increase your price point, and mass-market customers usually don't like that.