[RootyTootoot]

Sometimes I wonder if people in this forum, preaching the virtues of timber clarinets over plastic ones, have actually spent much (or any) time on a well-adjusted plastic Yamaha with decent mouthpiece.

I think the issue of adjustment is v important. IMO many techs would not take the trouble to adjust the action of a cheap instrument in the way they would if it's an E13 (R13 a fortiori). Of course, if the customer specifies that that is what they want and are prepared to pay for some extra time and trouble then things are probably different.