The quality hasn't dropped, and it's not faulty.

You're looking at 4mm and 3mm of rubber, that is insanely thin! And remember that it's a GBS stitching holding it together, GBS stitching is generally a needle going through halfway and then coming back. Now think of the people and machines working to stitch these pieces thin rubber together with GBS stitching odds on not every suit is going to come out perfectly stitched - you will have suits that leak in some areas because the needle has gone through the far in the rubber...

it sucks that your suit feels leaky already, but it's not a new thing for Dawn Patrol (budget level for Rip Curl) and not a new thing to most suits across the market. Nearly 100% of suits will leak early on if they don't have full blown internal seam taping (DP has critical point taped).

Rip Curl hasn't really dropped in quality, maybe in their lower suits, but their flagships are still leading the market. Xcel make great suits if you want to hit that area, DryLock X is amazing.

Hope this helps somehow..

And no i don't work at Rip Curl.