Because then it would be a durango.

Seriously, they have a different philosophy and history which may be the more dispositive factor. The b44 grew out of the bj4 more or less.

The bj4 took several cues from the yokomo series cars. Go online and find a picture of the mr4-bx and then further, the yz 870c. Look familiar? Not saying this was a copy, but a solid, tried and true approach back then was a good carbon fiber chassis, saddle pack arrangement.

Interestingly, yokomo ended up going composite later.

But anyway, AE evolved their buggy from this basic approach and in the AE philosophy continues the evolution, not revolution. It works for them and they should continue to do it.

I have a dex410 which handles nicely and is a tank, but if 17.5 4wd ever became popular, I'd hands down go with the 44.2 or the SX3 (or 4 when it comes out).

This is going to be an awesome kit. It is too bad that it's still SAE. Not a big issue, but they should migrate the rest of their platforms to metric already.