Quicky, As much a Honda man as I am, I think you're drawing a long bow by describing most Maicos as lemons right up to the last models. In reality, Maico rarely got it wrong between 68 and 81. The 75 model 250 and 80 models were a bit ordinary but the rest were great bikes, just check the results at any vintage meeting.
The CR450 was a dud but it didn't take Honda very long to get it right. I reckon they're good collector models for the reason Quicky said, they were the first Honda 2t big bore.