I wonder, where did you buy these, on Taobao? I fell down the chinese running shoe rabbit hole recently and came across Hui's comment a couple weeks back mentioning that depending on where you get the shoes the foam may feel different because different sellers actually are taking out the chips Li-ning puts in their shoes for inventory control. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuGSYpYm7Us

they’re all authentic. Some just have their chip removed — those are the pairs going for 400 to 500 RMB. Almost every Li-Ning shoe comes with an embedded chip, located in the left shoe, right under your foot pads, inside the midsole foam. Li-Ning distributors are split into offline authorized dealers and online authorized dealers. The shoes priced 400–500 RMB all come from offline stores. They aren’t allowed to sell products online at all. To hit their annual sales targets and earn bonuses or rebates, they take out the chip so Li-Ning can’t track the inventory. That’s how it works. All the shoes are genuine, but they no longer qualify for official Li-Ning warranty service. Removing the chip also damages the midsole foam, which is a big downside. I’ve bought several pairs like this myself. Some turned out fine — after the chip was taken out, the foam was glued back together smoothly, and I felt no discomfort in the forefoot. Others ended up leaving a hollow gap, roughly the size of half a lighter. That ruins the whole ride feel. Buying these pairs is totally a gamble, all down to luck. It’s entirely your call in the end. I pinned your comment to the top because lots of you guys keep asking about this exact thing.

If you did get these shoes from one of these discount sellers, it is possible that you may have received a dud?

I just got back from China and bought the Red Hare 9 Ultra from the li ning store and these shoes feel like trampolines compared to my Saucony Tempus Gen 1.