Brand quality

You say I don't know how it works and then you validate me....

Japanese historically build in a higher safety margins than ktm does at the expense of weight and sometimes cost  Same with cars to an extent. They run a spec that's not as close to the limit.  Just slightly different design criteria. Different philosophies. 

I didn’t say that at all, they didn’t cut corners. They didn’t gouge you for things a racer will change. 
 

But, if what you are saying is how you feel, a KTM isn’t the bike for you. 

I’m a little skeptical of the KTM appreciation based on the demographic. Ktms are overwhelmingly purchased by vets and off-road guys, and there’s a lot of overlap there. What happens when moto dudes get older? They earn more money, they start taking more responsibility for their property, they go dez or off-road and they stop wringing the piss out of their bikes. All that is a recipe for a well maintained and long lasting machine. Selection bias is too strong here. 

When I was still spinning t-bars, this is exactly what I saw.

There will always be bias and every brand has good and bad characteristics. Some guys are mechanically sympathetic, while there’s others who will destroy just about any bike.

Generally it’s horses for courses, but most bikes are pretty good these days. Buy whatever floats your boat Richy, maintain it well and enjoy!

If you are stripping bolts on the Kawasaki it's probably your fault. I've literally owned three Kawasakis have not stripped a single bolt you need to just be cognizant of the material that you're threading into and the amount of torque that might be required.

All I know is that my 16' KTM350 still looked almost new after 5 years & 80 hours...stock plastics, cables, seat, rims still looked great.  My 21' Yamaha looks fully roached at 25 hours and it's a pain to work on to boot. I love how it handles but I'm going orange again as soon as they have OE spring forks.

I’ll argue build quality/reliability of Suzuki any day. Sure on paper it might be last. But it’s solid, I think it was keefer, maybe another tester, rode it with no oil. New gen kawis fall way short in quality and durability I don’t know how any of you are even arguing it’s not 

Vital will argue any point, any time. 

I've had nothing but good luck on the current gen of Kawi's. For reference I race Open A in the national west hare scramble series. I've put well over a hundred hours on all three of the last KX's I've had and never had any issues. 19 kx250, raced a season and only had to change oil and filters. 19 Kx450, raced 2 seasons. Only replaced piston because of an extremely silty race and dust got past the air filter. 21 Kx450, on my second season racing it and again, only changed oil and filters. Never stripped out a bolt or had any quality issues with any of them. Granted I did swap out the chain guides and slider with aftermarket since the stock are known to wear prematurely. I think a lot of it has to due with the person turning the wrench