I know it's a lot of money, but the things I see selling the most are the Kato HD35V5 and HD50V5 mini excavators and the Canycom concrete buggies. The 1.7t might be a good seller too, IDK. I doubt there is a huge market for the small narrow wheeled skid steers like there used to be. The stand on tracked ctl's have taken a big part of that market, the rest has gone to the concrete buggies. A lot of guys figured out you could load those 36" wide tracked concrete buggies with a small mini ex. They haul dirt, gravel, and debris just as good as concrete, basically a mini tracked dumper.
You are correct on your assumption of those small Chinese mini excavators being complete garbage. A lot of them use grade 5 bolts instead of pivot pins, pi$$ poor cylinders, and a lot of joints are not greaseable. On top of that, the little engines they use don't have pressure oil lubrication, run it too long on an angle or on too steep of a hill and it'll toast the motor.
