What is funny to me is the odd way Hi Point adds a little gun "bling" to the pistol. It's like adding a spoiler to an Escort, or those "vents" you can get at Walmart.
It has a "skeletonized" trigger for heaven's sake. It has a finger-rest on the magazine even though it's full-sized. Some are two-toned. Some have rails. Some have lasers and others have compensators. Some have something really odd on the floor-plate that looks like a battery pack for a cordless drill. They share a certain "wannabee" spirit with a car driven by a novice fanboy who has added all the cosmetic requirements, except for paint, to turn a Dodge Shadow into a Tokyo Drift. It's still cheap, and it looks silly.
Really? Come on, it's a cheap pistol. Let it at least have the dignity to look utilitarian. I suppose that is ultimately it, for me. Instead of looking no frills, and basic, and doing so with pride, it has some really funky, needless, and CHEAP gun bling. Basic cigarettes are basic. They don't pretend to be anything else. I suppose I would have far more regard for a Hi Point if it proudly stood out for what it was. Instead, it seduces the novice or ignorant into believing it is something more (I recall the whole "Feel the Steel" ad campaign). It's kind of like a guy who buys an Chinese motorcycle, adds a bunch of chrome, gets a pleather (the modern name for Nalgahyde) jacket with iron-on skulls, and rubs on a few fake tattoos.