As an owner of 4 ThinkPads, I agree their quality has decreased significantly. But I'm still locked into them because no one else offers me a TrackPoint. I very strongly prefer a TrackPoint to any trackpad, so while other manufacturers don't offer them, I don't even look at their laptops... (I'm aware that Dell does have a couple of TrackPoint models and I will look into them when I have to make my next laptop purchase).