Besides Lucasi and Pure X which are the same company and it's the same shaft, which is not American made, the rest are American brands that are more focused on American customers. They just offer the snake oil that some wants to drink.... Do you know how many brands are out there?
CF is not pushed because it's cheaper to make, it's pushed because it performs better, needs less maintenance, it's more durable and more consist than maple and KW.
If KW was better, that it would have been mass produced by the biggest companies that lead the industry today and it would have been cheaper to make.
Top sponsored players don't have to use CF if they don't like it. They have options within the sponsor's offerings, like Biado that uses a wooden Predator shaft or Skyler Woodward that plays with CueTec Avid and not Cynergy and there are others. The fact that most still go with CF, proves that they prefer it over wood, so I don't buy the "they have to use it because they are getting paid to" claim.
If KW was such a holly grail, a company like Predator would have been all over it by now. But it makes no sense for a companies that lead in the performance and the technology aspect of the cue to deal with something that doesn't perform as well...
