VW doesn't manufacture any of those parts. Sachs makes most of them, and Sachs is sort of the 034 of German parts suppliers. Hence, my mentioning tires, VW USA gives us crap tires, plain and simple.
VW does solid engineering, plenty of aftermarket parts are a solid downgrade. But there's always room for improvement on something like a GTI/R, at least in the performance direction, but of course it will result in more noise and NVH. A GT3 or GT4 isn't nearly as comfortable as our cars, but it's not really meant to be. If you want to track a GTI/R, you need to toss lots of the factory pieces that are really compliant. It's not VW's fault that they're that way, they're more comfortable and quiet, and that's what 97% of buyer want, sort of like crappy all seasons. I get why they're on there, but throw us a bone and give us decent ones like Michelins, Contis or Pirellis.
And one more time, we're absolutely on the same page with 034. I'm actually running their upper and lower inserts and they've been fine, but I would probably just go ProFlex if I knew then what I know now.