Well stubble think about this way. honda is a very large high tech company. it probably wasnt hard for a company with a very well respected name to develop something the right way. they had experience with real transmissions. so they jumped in and slammed kawasaki ,polaris and yamaha with a real hydrostatic transmission. just like our vehicles! would you buy a truck with a drive belt?
a fan belt but not a drive belt!

and i will ease into that suzuki thing again. suzuki was the first to have 4wd. they did it right and made it able to go in and out of 4wd. others including honda didnt want to pay for the rights to add such to there machines for years.
so with that in mind i don' t look for others ie. polaris..... to have real transmissions for years thus continueing to make JUNK!!! but some will buy it !!!!!!!