These come from a time when Nissan was still half crazy, and about three quarters too humble. It bit them in the ass eventually; as well as a complete and total misinterpretation of the US market. We're talking about a company that took a pint-sized car you can
autograph a track with, wrapped it in leather, and tried to sell it as a near-luxury car to up and coming yuppies with only 145bhp to brag about. Understeer? You can hand someone the keys and convince them it's RWD.
Despite my frustrations with the Golf GTI, it's not a bad comparison with the actual G20T. They have a lot in common in many ways, but one's Kirk and the other is Picard. I've compared it to an S3 from the same period before, actually; but tighter and livelier. I will say if they were still made today, there would probably be threads here arguing which one was better for the same price.
At that time, they were a bit like Mercedes is in 2020, and
now they're like Mercedes was in 2004.
Nissan/Infiniti up to 2002 is some of the cheapest fun that won't cause herpes. Everyone just plain forgot about them. It's always... "Oh, hell! I had one of those... Forgot all about it. Never should have sold the thing."
It's a shame, but hopefully they'll be rediscovered and polished up eventually. Not everything is saved, though. Some things stay forgotten.