Just personal preference, if I can avoid chinese stuff, I do. Impossible, of course, but I try were I can. I've read great things about Dahua and Hikvision as you mentioned above. But I've heard Axis is also better, although not that superior. Is the increased cost vs step up in tech worth it, probably not for many, but that was the choice I'm considering. I haven't completely decided yet because I also have about 8-9 cameras to purchase and while cost is not a huge concern if it's better technology, I'm not opposed to spending the money. I would prefer not to spend $10-15k on a whole system but if it is a step up in tech, I don't mind as much. I also hate seeing grainy night images from videos of crimes and it looking like it came from some 2005 video camera. I've watched a number of youtube videos comparing various cameras videos and the axis always seems to do well in day & night. I also have a rather large halloween and christmas light displays and I'm starting to have some decent money on outside equipment to run those, so if something happens to it I want the best chance of catching a video of the person(s). But I haven't completely spec'd out my system quite yet and I may find I can't do what I want with Axis and may have to go with Dahua or HIK.
I don't know all the intricacies of this, but I'm guessing Dahua or HIK is not difficult to purchase even with the ban. I assume Dahua being sold early this year got them around that. HIK I'm not sure about. But that also recently popped up in my consideration, would they abandon the US market in the near future?
In regards to your comment about firmware updates, I agree with you wholeheartedly. as someone who used to jailbreak droid phones and load DD-WRT onto older routers, I'm well aware of sometimes keeping it simple and stable.
