You're 110% right about HD, and that's a company I dislike and respect even more than Bugatti. HD hasn't spent any money on engineering in about 100 years, and proudly sell some of the worst performing motorcycles in the world at roughly the price of a small passenger vehicle, because their marketing is just that good. (But honey, if I spend an extra ten grand on Screamin' Eagle stuff, I get a free skull and crossbones bandana and leather chaps!)
They were, what, 50 years behind BMW on motorcycle ABS? 30 years behind Honda on a reverse gear for the 1,000 pound land yachts they pass off as motorcycles? I rode a Road King a couple of years ago, and it was alarming at what HD considers "braking" and "shifting".
But hey, they make Dentists and Math teachers feel like they're in the Wild One (Sons of Anarchy, for the younger crowd) and that's what it's all about.