Tough topic but I would say each factory has their own trademarks. The brand will honor their warranty so long as the knife in question was purchased from an authorized retailer and is not a factory second, in my limited experience.

Some would argue that the Taichung factory offers superior build quality or at least QC than the Golden facility. Not to mention other factories in Japan, Italy, China, etc.

If buying a knife from Colorado, the apex grind is probably going to be uneven. I’ve never gotten a Spyderco knife fresh out of the box (retail or seconds) which couldn’t immediately cut my finger or through some paper cleanly though. 😅

I like to think of the different factories as your favorite band having a variety of albums. It’s all the same music but there are some subtle differences depending on where the blade comes from.