i didn't say it was cheap. it's fairly expensive. if you saw it in person you'd understand. the center stand is angled, so bullets typically strike it at a 45* angle and are unlikely to go right through it. mine does have a lot of divots though. don't think anyone ever hit the feet.
what makes it better are two design features. one is that the plates have no welds and are shaped in a way that impacts are unlikely to break them. the other is that most other designs allow the hinge to get clogged up with spalling and bullet fragments, dirt, whatever. this is common with plate racks too, but resetting plate racks is usually human muscle pulling a cord, so it can overcome the added friction. with horizontal swinging dueling trees, the challenge is calibrating them so that centerfire pistol and rifle can knock the plate to the other side, whether it gets hit on the far edge of the plate for more leverage or closer to the hinge. it requires as little friction as possible, otherwise the plate will get stuck 90* behind the stand and not swing the full 180*.
in my experience, every design with springs or tubes works fantastic when new and clean, but becomes very unreliable after a few hundred to thousand rounds. the AT design gets minimal friction by having two rings that have relatively tiny contact patch with the plate, and a lot of clearance. so it doesn't collect spalling, and can easily jump it if it does.
i'll try to find some close up pics