I have to agree that Yaesu...NEW Yaesu...rigs are mostly garbage when compared to the quality of their older radios.
This deterioration of quality and customer relations, seems to coincide with Yaesu being separated from Vertex by Motorola. Now to be fair, the customer service reps in California do a good job, but Yaesu Japan leaves their hands tied.
Yaesu’s recent offerings in the past 5-7 years have been very poor quality radios, at high prices, and yes, the customer has been the unknowing beta tester for these rigs. I think Yaesu’s business model has shifted to catering to the “newer” generation of ham radio operators who think using the internet to work “DX” is just as good as doing it the ol’ fashion way...and way easier too ! (we don’t need no stinkin’ antennas ! ).
And these interweb DX’er’s line up for the newest piece of gear that Yaesu offers, with cash in hand, and seem to be fine with the months it takes, and excruciating firmware update processes it requires, to get that new radio working the way it was suppose to when they pulled it out of the box.
If this FTDX10 is real, it will NOT be competition for the IC-7300. The IC-7300 is one of the best selling radios because it delivers good performance, reliability, and ease of use, at a good price point. Something Yaesu does not seem to be able to do anymore.
My $450 Xiegu G90 blows away the $1100 FT-991A I owned for less than a year, on the HF bands. I have said in other threads that I will not buy another Yaesu radio, and I can’t begin to recall all the Yaesu radios I have owned over the past two decades, but it is a significant number. But I suspect the Yaesu fan boys will disagree with me. Too bad, because I was a Yaesu fan boy when it meant something.