OK, as far as cam hardness and makeup... I agree with most of you...?
Yes, I am sure that many cams and race parts come out of China nowdays with nowhere near the same quality control we use to see. Like everything else in our lives nearly everything has been corrupted with cutting corners in quality, design and costs.
The past few years we have had very good luck with using a Nitride hardened (flat tappet) cam, with drilled face lifters that constantly pressure oil the lobes.
We just pulled one out after two seasons and hundreds of laps of hard dirt track modified racing, and it still looks almost brand new... so do the lifters. We could resuse them, but don't like taking risky chances.
After thorogh break-in with Brad-Penn Break-In oil, I ran Valvoline VR1 20-50 both seasons, changing oil and filter about every third race night... (about 100 laps). This is a cam that most people would say is a [risky cheap cam] to be putting into a $10k engine, but I love this cam for excellent neck breaking torque and full range of pulling power from 3200 thru 7800. It is a PRC109H from JR Motorsports/ Karl performance. I have used this cam and lifter setup for years in the modified class and have never had a failure. I beleive this would be a great high torque drag race cam also for someone on a budget...?
Back to the point... even if the cam metalurgy is not what it use to be, if you do it right you will have much better luck. I have seen various different extremely expensive race parts fail for who knows what reason, so nothing is failsafe no matter where or how it was made. Of course, if you rely on a proven reliable company and reputation, and you use it properly, your odds of success greatly increases... :O)
Jim