so are most warn winches sold today. Only ones not are the old classic series that are assembled in Oregon with "globally sourced parts" I much more trust a company thats main sales are winches vs a company thats main sales are the cheapest crappiest tools that a guy can buy. Ive ordered from them in the past and dont think i was ever pleasantly surprised with what came. But the real eye opener was they just put a store up here. I walked around it for about an hour with the wife that wanted to buy me a birthday present. I told her lets get out of here and go to lowes. At least there crappy tools are less crappy. My son in law has been the head mechanic at a big local diesel repair shop for 20 years. Want to ask him if he buys stull at harbor frieght!! You might get a good laugh out of him. 
Personaly id trust a 4x4 shop that recommended 250 dollar winches about as much as a race car shop that recommended 50 dollar tires. What winches like that or even my superwinch are good for are causal users. A guy that might get stuck once a year and hopefully in something light like a jeep not a diesel 4x4 pickup. Same thing goes for rope vs steel cable. I use rope but have you ever seen it on a wrecker?? Son in laws diesel ram has a warn zeon 12k with steel cable. he calls mine a atv winch. Which is basicaly what it is and how its used. "Made in china" strike one. "Made for harbor freight" strike two. Might be a great winch but ill never find out. this is the winch ive got on my jeep. https://www.extremeterrain.com/smittybilt-gen2-x2o-10000lb-winch-synthetic-wireless-8717.html
That is your perception. I'll take a guys word for it that uses wenches on a daily basis for his business. Do you know your Smittybilt winch is made in China? Sold by an American company but its actually made by the low bidder of China.
For winches up to 12,000lbs rope works fine. Matts off road recovery uses them for everything. He says he will never go back to cable. When he gets a winch. He spools the cable off and puts a rope on it. He even uses a rope for pulling people out of snow, sand, and off hillsides. Again he does this daily. I even watched him yank a big heavy motorhome out of sand with a kenetic rope. I was amazed by how much tension could be applied to the rope, where a cable would have snapped instantly. The rope works by kinetic energy, and works way better than any chain or cable ever would. Plus it won't kill or maim someone if it would break, like a cable or chain will.
There has been a lot of technology go into winch and pull ropes, that you are not obviously aware of. You need to clue your son in law in on it also.
I don't disagree that a lot of Harbor freights tools are not good for daily use. In fact I own very few tools from harbor freight, but if someone owns and uses a Badlands winch for daily use in a business, and has been for some time. You will never convince me that they are not as good as a smittybilt or a warn. Why not watch some of Matts recovery videos. You might learn something. There is a lot of crap that is made in China and sold by American companies. Almost all power and battery tools are made over seas like DeWalt for instance, yet people use them in their every day jobs.
