Sure, you do have some good points. But I do believe Hedman has the capability of getting a somewhat flat sitting flange, they have fit ok in the past and were a much cheaper price. Then the quality started going down and my most recent set of headers which are the ones I'm replacing got more expensive and much worse for flange fitment, like worse than the new shorties I just bought. I do have other options, but everything that is regular steel available pretty much hovers around the same-ish price, but still it's a few, so options are limited. I can fix the flanges, it's the "Proud to say made in USA" I find funny, since as a mechanic I've seen cheaper exhaust components (for other cars) with better flanges.