Lots of filters, and an ever increasing number of filters are going with louvers. IMO, it's not really "cheapening out", it's just a different design to achieve the same purpose. Louvers are not a bad design IF they are not closed up too much.
A design is only as good as the manufacturing process can produce the design. Can have the best design in the world on paper, but if manufacturing can't make it per the design then there's a problem, and that's most likely what happens in the louver world. There's a reason there are Manufacturing Engineers and QA involved in product production. A Design Engineer is not the same as a Manufacturing Engineer.