Kinda of unfair. The Chinese government essentially mandated that cars needed to be built in China if OEMs wanted to sell cars in China, I doubt OEMs were willing to lose 40+% of their sales just because they didn't have factories in China.
Of course it was a lose-lose situation, as they will just get their parts copied and lose market percentage.
It's a lot cheaper for OEMs to just manufacture one SKU (a car with all the hardware) than to have a bunch of different options. Now, wether or not they pass those savings to the consumer, I have my doubts