If they are seeing problems because of reversion I would think lots of Idle time and through silent choice would be worst..

What do you guys think?

Here is a 525 that Ron painted orange for the customer during the rebuild.

Definitely have to check the ecms. On a 575 with stock ecm the idle will kill them. It washes the cylinders down and fouls plugs. I am not kidding when say that a re flash is a must on the 575. My rear 4 cylinders were polished on mine when it was pulled down. The motor still made great power just had higher leakdown but absolutely no taper. The ecm said it spent a lot of time at low rpm...May have been harder on the motor that higher given the mapping.

A person can spend a he'll of a lot less on a motor with the same components...resale may suffer

Motor looks great, see they changed the air filter to chrome awesome.

Not only can u build it cheaper but with BETTER components and that will then give u more reliablity and longer life. There is nothing specail about whats in the 525 any motor builder will tell u that.
Cobra will build you a 600hp motor with warranty race or pleasure.

Maybe I can share my point of view and it might make sense to you. I am not a racer, nor do I want to build engines for my boat. I bought a boat with 525s because A), they are all built in the same engine plant using a said recipe. That recipe is known by all service techs and facilities that are in the business. If there are failures its a consistent failure that is known and can be repaired or avoided entirely if you do not want to get involved. I did not want to be elbow deep in July trying to figure out why the fuel line installed was too small or the fuel pump isn't keeping up, blowing head gaskets, etc. Then fighting with engine building guy that it's "my fault". There are exceptions on both sides of the fence on this no doubt. B) Resale in my type of boat. Independent built engines in my type of boat lower resale value, my boat is not a high performance cat or racing or high speed v-hull. At trade-in or resale time it's easy to add the value of the 525s in.
I'm sure there are better engines out there for less money, but for many like myself the overall Merc. Race package is the logical way to go.

Different stroke for different folks 4sure. Like u said it does depend on race or pleasure also.

I like the custom stuff, but this is a great point.

I am buying a new to me boat.... but I am still tore for the money do I buy the 525's at 80 mph?... or spend the same money and get a headache that does a 110 mph... I am still trying to talk myself into the 525's less headaches and a merc dealer should know how to put Humpty Dumpty back together when I bring it to them in a dustpan..