All the largest brands do their own R&D. Kenwood, Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood, JL. Rockford, Kicker, Harmon Group; which is primarily what you find in a big box store. I'm pretty confident none of them are just farming out off-the-shelf China designs for anything except perhaps their absolute bottom entry level. Even then they have the economy of scale and clout to have some exclusivity in what they have built overseas and I suspect the biggest names own their own production in the Far East.
The Alphard is as good as any of the other "brands" that people on this forum get excited about IMO. Seems to me like they get some pretty rugged woofers and buy good Korean amps. They're likely missing Precision coils, but if they assemble in-house they can probably do as good or better as anybody.
The problem I see, is as you said, they don't offer anything that you can't get under a dozen other "brand" names so what will set them apart here in the states? Doubt they can compete on price considering many of these "brands" are one guy in his garage or guys who come from money (and/or lose money) so you're not going to win the race to zero and keep a profitable business.
Look at the MSRP of DD, IA, and Sundown. Not like their cost on stuff is any more than anybody else's but that's the price point you need to be to run a real business.