american outboards VS Foreign

I was cleaning fish on my dock yesterday and decided to take a count of the amount of foreign outboard motors vis a vis american made as they went by and I was amazed. Out of 50, 26 were Yammies, 17 were zukies, 5 were johonnyrudes and only 2 mercs. These guys were all fishing in the big blue and no wifie and kiddies on board so reliability was probably a big factor in why they run what they do way off shore. I had no idea that the ratio was that high and even though I will never buy another Merc because I had three lemons in a row, I do still like the old and new Johnnyrudes but for what ever reason they are losing ground big time. Everyone makes 4 strokes these days and prices cant be that far off. Are the foreign motors really that good? Am I missing something? I usually get 3,000 hours out of my johnnyrude 2 strokes...Frank