Since this thread was resurrected... I wanted to post a little different experience and why I'm not ready to universally condemn the entire KYB strut plus lineup. I think there are some gems but you need to do your research.
The car in question was a 2011 Sentra in the family. Needed all four corners of the factory struts/shocks replaced. Factory mounts were ratcheting as well. Normally would try to get ahold of the OEM Sachs parts that came on the car but Nissan recently started to make these hard to source and were instead pushing their "ValueAdvantage" line of loaded struts. Couldn't figure out who their manufacturer was and only knew they were made in China which didn't help narrow anything down.
I read all the stories like this, usually about KYB putting good struts but terribly noisy mounts in their loaded packages. But I also found these stories were focused on specific models like certain CRVs and Priuses and some other specific cars. The ones for this Sentra had universally great reviews on Amazon and there were a few good stories on Reddit so I decided to go KYB over the unknown ValueAdvantage. I wasn't really interested in the few other available aftermarket options as they fit in the extreme value category. Sachs had an aftermarket option available but when you peel off the Sachs label, they were made by...KYB. So far it's been 10K miles on the Strut-Plus and they have been nothing short of perfect - ride height, damping feel, and dead silent even in sub zero temps which usually brings on the squeaking. Equal to the OEM feel, maybe even a little better feel on the damping, hard to remember what the factory suspension felt like new. Sure it's early and I could end up being wrong later but I'm really happy so far.
But I think that makes sense - there are so many models (and sub models) of cars they cover and given that complexity, and probably the different companies they source bearings and top hats and springs from, there is going to be variability. Based on what was available for this specific car, I think I ended up with the best outcome.
So I think the moral of the story for me is that model specific reviews can be more helpful than looking at a particular brand as a whole.