Who's fault
At no point in this will I fault Speed Queen. They did their best IMO and kept the longevity. As for wash-ability, what ever happens, happens. There is nothing you can do when the government starts breathing down your neck. From the sound of it these changes are indeed mandatory. And as such Speed Queen is forced to pick the lesser of several evils. While reduced cleaning might be an issue, I am sure they have weighed all the pros and cons of other alternatives such as a total design rebuild or mod shifters and brakes. Yes these will produce better cleaning, but there is the added cost of R&D, and something as simple as a mod sifter or break is a massive gamble especially when you need to heavily dismantle the washer for anything other than a motor or belt. Remember these washers aren't just for resi- but commercial where they will take massive amounts of abuse. Yes there is the rumor transmissions will stay for the commercial and foreign market, but I can't see that lasting for ever. Having two designs is more burden then just one, especially when that one design is using parts from front loads like the motor and inverter.
They know they are making many hard painful decisions, as did Whirlpool and GE. Trust me, I am certain manufactures hate these mandates as much as we do. No one wants to deal with consumer complaints, bad publicity, or 'oh, we should have done it this way instead'
As much as I LOVE toploaders, and as much as top loaders have several distinct advantages over front loads (such as speed), soon or latter we will all switch to front loaders. There is only so much you can do with limited water. I hate saying that, but DOE regs are basically forcing it.
