I bought mine because I have only owned Honda offroad products. If I had known someone or had experience with Can Am products myself, I might have gone with the Defender.
I also chose the Pioneer 1000 because it was (and is) the only machine out there that has a manual locking front, a dumping bed and turf mode. (Maybe John Deere does?)
No other machines out there have that. Polaris has a Hilliard front diff that is prone to breakage, Can Am has a speed sensitive limited slip front diff, Arctic Cat doesn't have a turf mode model, Kawasaki doesn't have a Locking front and turf mode in the same model, Yamaha doesn't have anything with turf mode, I don't plan on owning another John Deere product after my X500 dies, and I didn't/won't even consider any of the Chinese/Indian machines right now.
The ability to haul 2 additional people in the bed is a bonus but not a requirement for me but that further differentiates the Honda from all others, no one else can do it.
If not for my suspicion/distrust of the clutch and the air intake and the annoying tendency of the mode selector switch to get stretched and need adjustment just sitting in the garage, I would consider this machine to be near perfect.