It's not that Taiwanese stuff is rubbish at all, it's simply down to the quality of the parts, £ per unit and durability of the items. There is a reason things cost more than others and this is as they are not manufactured in a cheap country using cheap labour and cheap parts with a 10 year out and his mum in a sweat shop doing all the work. The level of R&D is far lower, even in some cases more than likely non existent than some reputable brands and so on.
Meister I actually think look and sound great and I have considered them myself (the higher end models that are circa £1800). I think that Jerrock (I believe his name is) offers a great customer service and so on and the GT1's I believe they are look amazing. Saying that the life of an item like Yellow speed will be far less than a Bilstein, Gaz, AST/Aragosta, Nitron and so on (and understandably as the item costs less to manufacture).
The reason many people use the cheaper alternatives for race series etc is simple (replacement £ per unit costs if something goes wrong). For example how many race teams in Civic Cup, Clio Cup, Tin Top Challenge etc do you see running Rays, Work, Enkie wheels etc? In reality they mainly run cast rims (Bola, Rota or similar) copy or cheaper wheels as if something breaks or gets damaged the replacement costs are far less (sometimes up to around a 1/4 of the price of a forged wheel that's also very very hard to come by.
The same goes for suspension, how many top end companies in BTCC, Le-Man and so on do you see running Yellow Speed, BC etc? The reason they don't is simply the fact that they can afford the replacements of higher end quality made and tested items.
It all comes down to budget and ones needs. Bilstein B16 PSS9's imo are an amazing all rounder, they offer high quality £ for pound and are a reputable brand, fully tested and far from boaty as you say, mines solid as a rock a smooth with no body roll under full acceleration and cornering with my geo.
I cannot comment on AST low end items but I know the ones I was looking at would make my car unbearable on the road