Let's talk about the controversy of Lego off brands. There's a lot to consider for this topic. First of all, a lot of people like to consider themselves "purists" by only using Lego brand products. Some people compromise and use mostly Lego, but also allow some 3rd party products into their collection because they include options that Lego doesn't make. Some people just think that Lego is too expensive and that's why they go with the off brands.
When I was a little kid, my mom called Lego products "Loc Blocks" and I didn't understand why that was, until I researched and found that there was a cheap brand of knock off Lego called Loc Blocks. She probably bought me some of those when I was really little. She also bought me Tyco brand blocks because I was a child of the 1980s and that was the big popular competitor to Lego back then. We were poor and Tyco cost less so I understand. I actually still have a Tyco yellow spaceman and one of the unique bricks that Lego didn't make themselves.
My mom also bought me a bunch of Mega Bloks (which is now also called Mega Construx), which was infuriating at the time; what's a poor kid going to do though? I understood that Lego was expensive because my parents used to pay me for my grades in school and I would save up that money to buy my own toys. I have spent years and years getting the old Mega Bloks out of my Lego collection.
In fairness, it's perfectly fine and legal for other companies to make similar interlocking block systems because of the way that legal patents and such work. Some other companies that are legally selling alternatives that work with Lego are Kre-O (which has the Star Trek license), BanBao, Cobi, Sluban, Laser Pegs, and a bunch of Chinese brands.
What becomes an issue is when another company steals the design and exact set (either made directly by Lego or by a fan who has made a MOC and posted it online). If the company doesn't pay for permission to use the design, then that is considered illegal and immoral - except in China.
China doesn't operate with the type of copyright laws that the rest of the world does and thus there are a ton of knock off brands there that literally just copy Lego sets and produce them with a different name. The big daddy of those companies was Lepin, which got into serious legal trouble 10 years ago. But guess what? Lepin is still around. And so are some other companies that sell the sets under different names.
Why would I, or anyone else, consider buying sets from China? Well, it's legal to buy them from China and Lego is really, really expensive. What's happened over the years is that retired Lego sets end up going for way more than their original value on the used or 3rd party market. The Lego Group knows this and they encourage the extremely high price of their retire sets by placing unique pieces, prints, or color combinations in sets and then not using them again. That means people can't just find the needed pieces in other sets. They have to pay that high price for the retired set being sold on the used market - or they can buy a cheap knock off from China.
Lego has backed poor people into a corner here. It's an interesting strategy that, financially, is paying off for them. During this pandemic crisis, I'm sure Lego has made more money than ever before; many of the sets from Lego.com are constantly on "backorder" or "sold out" status.
Hypothetically speaking, if a $100 set wasn't available from Lego and your options were to either pay $300 for it on Ebay or $70 for a cheap Chinese knock off, what would you do? The downsides to buying the knock off sets are (1) you have to wait longer for international shipping and (2) you have to live with your compromised moral/ethical state of being.
By the way, I did order some sets from Lego.com that were on "backorder" and while it said it would be about 60 days before it was in stock again, about 10 days later I received emails saying they were shipping the products. Assuming those sets arrive in the next few days, I guess I lucked out.
I also ordered some sets from China, to see how long they will take. The sets I bought are not copies of Lego sets, but there is a chance that the designs were stolen by MOC-builders. I don't know because really, it would take a lot of work to figure that out. But I love the 2020 Speed Champions cars and they are cars made with the same design concepts. They will match my Speed Champions cars, assuming that they arrive here in about a month. They were only about $10 per car so they were still cheaper than the Lego sets here in the US.
Hopefully you won't lose respect for me not being a Lego purist, but the fact is, my mom made sure I wasn't one from the days of my childhood.
That's it for today. Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home!
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