Elon having a stainless steel phase and insisting on using steel for upper stage also plays a tiny role in it sucking, and by tiny I mean 100-200 metric ton lower payload. And no it's highly unlikely China would sacrifice 200 ton payload to save money on aluminum welding process and infrastructure.Well the payload mass ratio is naturally gonna suck if one is attempting full reusability. Lets be honest, China is gonna copy this approach as well. SPX is just about the only good thing going on in US, no need to detract from that
SpaceX is the only good thing going for the US, that's true, which is actually saying a lot considering.