A few observations:

I doubt that a Chinese factory is delaying the 997, since it's design is happening in Korea. The company the owns the Sherwood brand (Inkel, formerly Etronics) is based in Korea, although they appear to have added some Chinese manufacturing resources in the last couple years.

Peter Tribeman does not have any role at ATI. He is president of Atlantic Technology, but that is a different company. Outlaw has used ATI (and their California factory) for their multichannel amps for at least a decade now, and several other companies use ATI for amps. (Lexicon even has an amp that shares a number of design characteristics with the 7900.)

I suspect that some of the "Outlaw vs. Emotiva" stuff comes from Mark Schifter's early marketing, which focused on Emotiva (and particularly their problematic LMC-1) as an "Outlaw-killer". The two companies are almost alone as internet-direct home theater electronics makers, which is going to inevitably lead to comparisons and debate, similar to the early HSU Research vs. SVS debates.

As for the discussions about buying products made in China, we each make our own decisions. As I've said in other threads, Outlaw builds in a number of factories located in several countries. Their multichannel amps and speakers are built in the US (which is one reason they cost more than Emotiva's Chinese-built amps and speakers), the monoblocks are built in Malaysia, and the subs and 990 are built in China.