Naw, I've just decided that you're right. If you pay at least 8K to a dealer, who allows you to wet test, then you have a quality tub. Period. End of story. You really don't need any information on exactly why the more expensive one (with a wet test, from a dealer, of course) is better. It just is. And anyone who asks why it is should be ridiculed. Because they just don't understand quality. And one day, some years from now, they might be sorry. So they really should return the tub that seems to work just fine, because it might not later. And, they'll wish they had spent 10K at a local dealer ( I don't know how 3 empty store fronts where dealers used to be fits into this equation, but I'm sure I could still get valuable dealer support from them if only I had given them 10K for their tub and gotten a wet test.) And, more importantly, when my less than 10K, non-wet tested, cheap, might go bad some day, Costco tub goes bad, I won't try to return it because the Costco return policy might be different for Hot tubs than for the entire rest of evertthing I buy there. Instead, I'll spend the rest of my life on this little forum screaming to the heavens about how low quality the tub is and about how stupid anyone is who likes theirs. And, hopefully, I'll get to be the dealer loved poster boy of the forum.
That's all. I've just really learned my lesson.