I think it’s always dangerous to judge the ACTUAL current quality of anything on such bases.
Bill Gates in his 1995 book The Road Ahead, which was interesting in many ways although it may very well have been ghost-written for him, begins by mentioning tornadoes of group enthusiasm or deprecation that lift some software companies up and tear others down despite the relative quality of their products because some are in the right place at the right time and others just get screwed up on the luck of the draw, crowd psychology, etc.
Starkey was once the darling of the hearing aid industry. It prescribed hearing aids for five U.S. Presidents. It’s founder and CEO Bill Austin got too busy being a media and social “rock star” and left the running of the company to his compatriot Jerry Ruzicka and things went south from there. Hopefully, Starkey’s present HA’s are more in line with the quality of their original products but they have a terrible interim history to live down. So no matter how good present Starkey HA’s actually are, any potential new HA wearer coming to the forum and finding the substantial enthusiasm for Phonak, the past (hopefully well-over) clouded history of Starkey, how much do you think actual present HA quality determines a trial and buying decision…? It’s a positive feedback cycle, either in the UP or the DOWN elevator (tornado).
A few of the undoubtedly quite a few mentions of Starkey’s checquered past on the forum: Oticon replaced my hearing aids under warranty, are they new or used? - #14 by spectrumplay and Starkey fires president and other top officers - Archived - Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community (hearingtracker.com)
Edit_Update: There’s also this Forbes article: Former Starkey hearing aid president starts 7-year prison sentence - #2 by jim_lewis