I am not sure I am getting your point. Are you saying that a US made yo-yo will be damaged less from the same impact? Is that from using an inferior aluminum? Isn’t 6061 the same everywhere? I thought the 6061 meant it had a specific formulation; and a specific hardness. How are they different from place to place? Do you have evidence of this?
Huh? All yo-yo’s play the same? Did you mean to say that? :o
If we are talking about multiple materials; which USA-made bi-metals are you throwing? I can only think of one contemporary bi-metal made in the USA. Its durability was no better (or worse) than my Japanese or Chinese bi-metal yo-yo’s. None of them “played the same” as the other.
As for the patriotism angle; I think that there is an awful lot of online marketing occurring in just about every yo-yo forum these days. As the cost of making yo-yo’s continues to tilt in favor of Chinese companies I would expect that this will become more of an “issue” to more and more people. Since there are livelihoods at stake; you can bet that they will use whatever emotions can influence buying decisions.
Patriotism? Or, just marketing?