However reliable any other system is, it’s still measured as how many times you have to rebuild them Vs a set of 540s.

Really?  We have Time ATACs from over 20 years ago that haven’t needed a rebuild yet. Once set did get killed by a rock strike that bent an axle, but the bearings and retention system/bars have been faultless.
I do have one set where the west on the retention bars means they might get retired soon – but not yet.

Bearing, rails and cleats wore very quickly for me on Atacs, so switched back to SPDs.

Cleat looks a little like TIME.

However, seeing as my Time pedals are 24 years old, and I have sets on 4 Bikes, and have never needed to do any service work on them, or on my Knees, I’ll stick to Time.

But saying that why all the fuss over the cleat? Crank Bros. have there own cleat, time has there own cleat, and if you look at road bikes, every brand has multiple cleats.

The difference is, Crank Bros bread and butter is pedals, they’re not going to stop making them overnight.

Hope had a reputation for really good support of legacy products. However, as the Hope cassette shows, that’s no longer the case. If you’re buying something with wearing parts, you want to know they’re going to be available long term.

Not saying it’s going to be a problem, but you’d be pissed if you bought 3 sets of these for all your bikes, then finding 5 years down the line, you can’t get cleats.