You may be right about sending them directly to the factory -- or maybe the folks who buy the Hi-Points are just a shade smarter.
Most guns, if they break or stop functioning early on, come back to the seller/dealer, because 1) folks don't read warranty info in their packages, and 2) its a lot cheaper to let the dealer deal with the problem.
I know of two dealers who sell Hi-Points, and while they don't make a lot of money with them, feel comfortable that they're not degrading their firm's reputation by selling them.
On the other hand, I still haven't fully recovered from seeing a compenstated Hi-Point set up for competition at one of those shops, however. (One wonders where they find holsters for those beasties...)