Without getting into the usual this vs that argument to me the tamiya "standard" is due to it's ready to IR battle/durability out of the box (with addition of an IR bulb and apple which is plug and play.) In MOST cases the other offerings will be modified to get up to this standard whether it's changing electronics to be tamiya compliant on IR, changing metal suspension parts, gearboxes, sprocket/idler etc. This is also the case since most clubs or events are using the tamiya IR code as "standard."