Well it had nothing to do with Weber and everything to do with CE/UL requirements. The construction and how the requirement is applied is on the company. They could get away with it simply with distance and another handle material -such as wood. It has a lower emissivity -it's in part, the illusion that something is not as hot as something else and how objects handle heat. Thus.. a nylon handle is hotter than a wood handle even though they are the same size and distance from the heat source. So in testing, what is that temperature of that surface.
The knuckle reference was with a taco in place, someone would hit their knuckles on the edge and cut themselves -one of the debates at various meetings.
Acceptance, I would have to agree about how they look and how it's been executed and the results thereof. A lot of the Euro kettles at the time had a lot of assembly required. Then there as a push that this was ok.
I'm surprised they haven't included a powder coating kit as part of assembling a grill. The more effort they could pass to the consumer, the better for the company because they didn't have to pay for it.
They could have those handles and everything assembled very nicely. Open the box, and done...
As for the chips, don't they include some fiber washers like what used to (are they still?) on the WSM? The very point was to prevent chipping.
