A few thoughts:
Zeagle allows dealers to sell parts openly, but that is not the same as saying all dealers will do so. What happens if you do not live near a Zeagle dealer - either the dealer dops Zeagle or you move somewhere with no Zeagle dealer?
In contrast, on just about any given day, and certainly within any 1 to 2 week period of time, you can find new scubapro parts kits on e-bay for any Scubapro reg. I can;t rememebr the last time I saw a Zeagle kit. So if you want to talk about 'real world get them anywhere parts availablity' the conversation starts and ends with Scubapro.
The Mk 17 G270V is an exceptional reg, and as noted above, Scubapro has a history of supporting their regs for decades. For example, a Mk 5 R109 from the late 1960s can still be serviced by Scubapro. Also, that same reg can be upgraded to the much later balanced configuration and then uses the same S-wing poppet as the latest scubapro balanced regulators and offers nearly identical performance. Not bad for a 40+ year old reg.
Scubapro routinely makes improvements in newer designs retrofittable into older ones. The Mk 16 is a good example as they are automatically updated to the improved Mk 17 seat and seat carrier at annual service - at no additional cost to the customer.
A couple months ago I had a customer with a Mk 15 with a problem with the first stage body and that part is no longer made. But Scubapro replaced that 20 year old reg with a new Mk 25 at no cost. Most companies won't support the annual service of a reg that old, let alone provide free replacement under warranty.
Buying American sounds good, but it is largely meaningless in todays economy. Consider this:
About 50% of the profits on wall street come from foreign companies and foreign business. What that means is that those interests are in opposition to the concept of American jobs. If you change foreign trade policies and tax incentives to increase "American" jobs, you decrease profits on wall street and for many, if not most, "American" companies.
Also, there is a big difference between where the parts are made and where the reg is assembled and the situation is not much different than American workers assembling a Toyota at a plant in the US. That particular Toyota is no more "American" made than a Ford or Chevy assembled overseas with parts made in the US, or assembled in the US with parts from overseas suppliers. I'd argue what is important is not the low wages paid to the assembly workers but rather where the company profits are ultuimately going and which coutry ultimately benefits - which takes you back to the whole wall street foreign profit issue.
So in effect, you can't just increase American jobs to bring about an economic recovery, and it's not the number of American jobs that count as much as the quality of those jobs, the revenue that is generated and where that revenue ends up. The reality is that the US has moved into a post industrial age and manufacturing jobs are going to continue to move to second world contries with low labor costs (think of the labor situation in the US in the late 1800's and early 1900s). The US is faced with a need to greatly improve education so that American workers can stay in the forefront in terms of engineering, science and management in order to lead, direct or add value to the now second world manufacturing industries.
We are in effect gettig our ass kicked on the global stage by "No Child Left Behind" type initiatives that set a low bar to bring everyone "up" to a mediocre level of performance at the expense of all the people with potential to perform well above that low bar of achievement. We are alos getting our hats handed to us as a result of economic polices that promote the use of money just to make more money, rather than to actually stimulate the economy - a major issue before, during and after the recent bank bailouts.
Buy "American made' if it makes you feel good, but don't kid yourself about what it really means in a much larger global economy.
