Nothing wrong with St Croix rods . As they say , “ The Best Rods on Earth “ .
They make some fine equipment.
The only JDM rods I like as much is the Abu Garcia Mass Beat 3 rods . I bought two of them from JDM tackle Heaven . Their prices are good , and they ship pretty quick , but you pay full price shipping. I think it was around $40 shipping.
I bought a few Daiwa Trout X rods from Digitaka . They were reasonably priced which included shipping. But I don’t like them as much as my SC rods .