Those lowers should come stock, allowing the customer to take them off if desired. Was a pure aftermarket money grab/production savings move on Hondas part. Most of us bought Hondas in part for their reputation. They should never forget that when making these decisions.
Who knows, it might even be a nod to dealers, allowing for them to work in markup on product installation. Not a fan of the decision, whatever the reason.
Same goes for the ridiculous cost/work involved in adding electrical. The other guys got busbars prewired and ready to go, stock. I would have paid another 500+ in sales price for some of this obvious stuff to be nicely integrated from the factory.
I think a lot of the sxs's are aimed at desert, and then sell add ons to suit other terrain. Which makes sense since that's the most economic way to do it. Why sell every machine with full doors when some will take them off? Or you get people complaining about the footwell being to hot.
Personally, I wish I would have waited and got the smoked lexan ones I saw when Google'ing.
Now on the electrical, I totally agree, honda is a joke with electrical. I was talked into their $300 panel when I bought my machine, since it was required for their wiper kit. Go go to install and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Then I look at the instructions again and see the "sold separately" sub harness. Basically a a few plugs and 12" of wire for $55.
Then I realize that their panel is just a piece of plastic and a few wires also. No fuse block. Each honda accessory comes with a ghetto I line fuse. What a joke, I can't imagine what a rat nest it would be with 6 honda accessories.
I ended up returning the panel and sub harness and building my own wiring kit, with 2 different fuse blocks, 1 key on and 1 Pre wired to the switch panel for like $150 including bulk wire and terminals I have a ton left of.