You've posted here longer than me, and you know exactly what I'm saying. In my office I could have easily gone with Intel MOBOs and possibly saved a few bucks on the X58's. I didn't because there's no 'upside' on cheap. Durability was/is my goal. ASUS are the best of the imperfect MOBOs.
I recall some OP with 50+ bad Intel MOBO builds across multiple departments {the problem I spotted was not understanding QVL RAM - buying single vs Matched RAM}. I too have seen plenty bad Intel MOBOs. Stuff/review like this ->
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121472 Clearly, the more expensive lines are better, but their basic & less expensive MOBO's are lack luster if not simply bad. There's ASUS, GA, EVGA, you name it that are simply bad as well. Read the reviews before buying anything, and read through the dumb stuff.
Bottom-line, it's the cheap and too basic that makes my red-light on Intel. I 'get' what you're saying and I know you 'get' what I'm saying.