Perhaps. But maybe just plain old stubbornness...
For a decade (or more) in the 1970's/early 1980's, BMW used spring-loaded sidestands on their motorcycles. Everyone constantly complained as it is quite difficult to hold the sidestand out with your left foot while gently tilting the bike onto it. BMW's answer was that a proper rider should dismount the motorcycle to the left before putting the sidestand down.
Think about it. Particularly when you are touring and have sidecases and a bunch of stuff strapped onto the rear of the seat.
It was so bad that there were at least 3 companies selling replacement sidestands that bolted onto the frame, were ugly, and costly ($75-150 in 1981 dollars). Yet, they sold a lot of the ugly things, including one to me, because of the bad BMW design.
BROWN Sidestand BMW R100RS,R75/5,R100S,R80RT,R90S,R80/7 - eBay (item 380299314100 end time Jan-13-11 10:49:41 PST)
Finally when they came out with the K series of bikes they stopped using spring--loaded sidestands... it only took a decade for their customers to pound it into the engineers' heads.
In the early 1990's when BMW added power-hungry ABS systems, the bike began having under-charged battery problems. BMW blamed it on the riders taking too many short trips and/or keeping the engine RPMs too low. Sound familiar?
It got to the point that they were giving a free BMW 3 amp battery charger with every new motorcycle (I got one with my 1991 K75S). After 2-3 years of this, they stopped giving away the free battery chargers and no one had any charging problems. Oh, and there was a new, larger alternator attached to the engine when they stopped giving away the free battery chargers.
BMW representatives and presenters at the BMW National rally never, ever admitted there was a problem with the sizing of the charging system. I suspect if you asked them today, they would still deny it, and blame it on the riders' riding style.