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  > 11 years
  > 760'000 cranksets sold (only in US and Canada)
  > 4519 incidents reported (presumably only in US and Canada)
  > We want to ensure the safety of our customers by implementing this voluntary inspection and recall program. (After all the above... call me a cynic)
And people say that monopoly is bad.
I hope you aren't suggesting that Shimano is a monopoly. I could probably name ten other brand-name makers of cranksets, let alone the nameless Chinese models. Sure, only some of them would be compatible with Hollowtech II, while others would require installing a square-taper bottom bracket, but there is plenty of choice.
As long as they have the majority of the market along with majority of the profit, without any real chance from any other competitors, feel free to call them whatever you want - it won't change reality.

On a separate note this is not the website to send thinly veiled threads to other, especially not without any reason.

Chinese bike parts manufacturing has taken off in the last 2 years. QA still needs refinement, but they’re at the point of building pretty good bikes at a fraction of the cost. I think shimano’s dominance has hit a tipping point.
I live in APAC and the number of de-laminations amongst my rider friends has been ridiculous. The humid conditions and / or using a trainer and sweating into them seems to be enough.
Ahh good old Shimano 105s still trucking after ten years and unaffected.
It’s the old weight/strength/price triangle at play! Turns out they sacrificed the “strength” side a little too much…

Ultegra cranksets are surprisingly light, and Dura-Ace ridiculously so. It messes with your mind if you pick one up on its own.

> stop using the cranksets manufactured before July 1, 2019

So... did they fix it accidentally or did they knew older versions are faulty but didn't want to issue the recall? All I can find is this: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-honda-failsafe-idUS... but I remember other cases of manufacturers quietly replacing faulty parts without any change in part symbol.

My prior is that they knew. These cranks are absolutely notorious in enthusiast cyclist circles, have been for years. Anecdotally they would replace the cranks even after the warranty had lapsed (at least I haven't heard of them not doing so) but that's scant relief if it happened after you've nearly eaten pavement in the middle of a ride.