Oh no, I'm not trying to excuse it. I'm merely trying to understand it. And, I've only seen one bad example, so I'm not running terrified from Wix. Every other example we pulled off the shelf of the 51358 was just fine. Heck, for the date of production of my bad example, I don't know if they made one bad filter, or a whole day's run bad.
There's a Wix on my shelf ready to be used, and it likely won't be the last. Pricing competition with Baldwin aside, one of my Wix suppliers does have very nice, late night hours, which most other parts stores don't have. And, I do buy stuff at weird hours; Acklands-Grainger has some pretty appalling hours. They fit into the rural Saskatchewan mentality quite nicely.