I don't think it's always stupidity. Steve, the owner of this POS is a nice, cordial, intelligent chap. I think it's just that many people find it hard to grasp that such a serious problem could of been allowed to continue for so long or that the consequences of failure can be so shattering and occur so fast!
There are many flat tappet bikes out there still and their owners think they're fine. They don't make any unusual noises and their performance isn't compromised noticeably. The problem is that they can be in a quite advanced state of destruction while showing no outside symptoms. It isn't until
all the DLC has gone from the foot of the tappet that the really rapid erosion of the parent metal of the tappet and the cam lobe occurs. The thing is when that point is reached the destruction is both catastrophic and very fast!
There are people too who are deeply suspicious and just assume the whole problem is a scam by unscrupulous people, (ie me!) to get them to carry out unnecessary work so I can support my obscenely lavish lifestyle! Well if people
want to believe that there ain't a lot I can do about it but I can assure them that even if my heart could stand it the amount of coke and the number of high class hookers I could afford off the back of rollerising flat tappet 8V's would need a fairly powerful electron microscope to detect!