Gentlemen, it is hard to justify spending close to $200US on something like a 70K, for a lot of people. As an example, myself and people near me have easy access to high quality bovine leather, veg tanned, around 3mm thick. You can do whatever you want with it in terms of setting up the surface, playing with suppleness, etc. $200 gets us 3 full hides, that's nearly 6 sqm/60sqft and that's a lot of strops... as many as 30, if you know how to look at leather.
So I don't think there are "nay sayers", only friends who unfortunately can't afford a Kanoyama. The quality is undisputed, it's only a matter of personal preference and one's financial situation.