[Pete]

“It would be interesting to see how those heads are machined after casting.
Quality control seems lacking.”

I can tell exactly how they were machined by looking at the tool marks and that is not the right way to do it. Fastest, maybe, but not right. With just minimally more time, a mirror finish could be achieved.
Misplaced holes, poorly aligned water outlets and spotface angles off are usually machine setup faults, not engineering faults.

Many products these days are done the fastest way that will “get by”.
A sad thing about these many products is the marketing department.
They have people giving out information about things they don’t have a clue how they work in real life applications. They have never seen or done it themselves. The company may be owned by the nicest guy you ever met that holds world records and gives all kinds of money to medical research and the homeless, but has a very poor employee training program.
I don’t know what the answer is but I don’t like dealing with it every day.