Yeah, like many other industries, the pool business prefers a sexy and complex sales pitch (= fancy-shmancy lie) to plain statistics and honest explanations. Even if a company prefers to be honesty, it's hard for them to do so, since an honest description makes their product sound boring and out-of-date compared to junk being marketed with the latest 'sexy' lies.

The medical industry does exactly the same thing, when you get prescribed the latest patented drug @ $400/mo even when research shows the $10/mo generic is more effective. Only the scale is different: the pool biz rips people off for millions; the medical trade rips people off for trillions.

I have a friend who is an orthopedic surgeon of some skill. He's pointed out to me that you can tell doctors who always cut, even when therapy works as well or better, from doctors who recommend therapy first, and surgery if therapy fails . . . by which cars they drive. The 'top' orthopedic outfit in town reportedly won't schedule a 2nd appointment, without a commitment to surgery. Unsurprisingly that team's doctors tend toward Mercedes 500 models and the like.

In both industries there's a sort of Sgt Schulz ("I know NUTTING, I see NUTTING, I'm just doing my job!") collaboration between doctors, lawyers, gov't regulators, hospitals and drug suppliers on the one hand, and manufacturers, wholesalers, pool stores, builders, and the NSF on the other hand, that rips off victims without affording them a single clear 'bad guy' who's doing it to them.

PS: for everyone who has no idea who Sgt Schulz is, because they are under 50, and thus never saw Hogan's Heroes . . . Youtube to the rescue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp9BJxFHDYI