[Don 79 TA]

I used to work at my friends shop and did many new tire installations, repairs, etc. So i have experience. However i left the game in 2008 when i had to move.

I had to get some new tires for my 2018 Nissan Frontier. My "go to" tires back in the day were basically any good named manufacturer. the best results i had were with Pirelli's and Michelins.
So i decided to order some Michelins Defender LTX M/S. Saw some reviews.
OMG.... the amount of wheel weights they needed to used.
The "kid" comes haul'n butt from the shop area, calls me, says look here you have bent rims, i said WTF you are talking about, he spins the tire and it wobbling up and down. he said i reset the bead and rotated a few times, your rim is bad. i sad NO, you have bad tires. Then i show them how to look at the rim, and start talking. They look at me and say, you know about this stuff, so i said yes, i was/am a mechanic.
Shop manager comes over, tells them get the last tire in stock and put it on, he tells me tire MFG's no longer quality check, they leave it to the shop now.
So, he puts the new one on, and its better, but the amount of weights it needs to me is unreal.
I never had this problem in the past unless we used knock off tire brands, aka cheap tires, or, someone like me had an older truck with sorta rusted out steel wheels. I remember less than 4 new tires that i deemed no good when i did tires (and i did a lot). most used just a small tab of wheel weights, unless there was obvious rim damage.
i even said to the installers, when you took off the original tires (Hankook is what Nissan used) were there a lot of weights, they said no, i said see, bad batch of tires. They were dumb founded.
anyway i am fighting with Discount Tires and Michelin on this issue. I just don't like that they had to put some really big weights on my $1400 set of tires.

I'm now reading reviews where people are complaining a lot about things like this, from various mfgs, especially Mickey Thompson tires.

What have you guys been seeing/dealing with?
I know new car mfg's probably QC things better
the skill/professionalism of the new breed of workers.... I don't know, do i just have to get used to it?
i get these shops are crank em in, crank em out, but man... where has quality control gone?
I don't have any small ma/pa type workshops here, so i guess do i suck it up and go to the dealer and hope they do better?
I need new tires for our Accord and My TA.
For the TA i will just get through Summit, but am really concerned about what crap i will wind up with.
and.... tires are NOT cheap anymore.