SMT versus "Junk" - hmmm...
Well, go make some popcorn because this explanation might start an agreement or argument debate...
SMT I'm thinking you are referring to SMD (SMT can be confused with other monograms) So the electronics industry has adopted the term SMD to equate to Surface Mount DEVICES. The term refers to devices soldered only on the surface of a Phenolic board. Not Thru - Hole meaning the item is a "Discrete" and uses Thru-Hole mounting where the hole is drilled and the part is soldered UNDENEATH the board to a foil trace on the Phenolic board.
With that out of the way, I will also add this - SMD has it's merits - we have hand-held devices that we wrap ourselves around trees and smash into public buildings due to our fascination with them and what they can do for us.
Thinning the herd is one way to look at it...
Others are that they take an otherwise bulk heavy thing that contains a substance similar to what got a whole bunch of people in trouble over when it came to paying water bills and where that water came from (Hooray? Were on the map---) originally. Instead they put it in a tiny little package that uses less of the aforementioned material and instead raised the prices of fillings for teeth by using a stuff than Paul Simon once made a mint from a song using the title "Kodachrome".
Today, with these tiny little devices, we now have better entertainment as we slam our selves past concrete barriers, Road construction events and otherwise poor and nasty directional control and shuffle off this mortal coil as we dive headfirst into places like the San Francisco bay - bay while dodging feces, homeless people and an occasional displaced CEO (in transition, they say).
And to think this all started in Silicone, er - I mean - Silicon Valley.
SMD can work, and work well if the engineers know what they are doing in layout and installing the innards correctly - they can provide a good performance level that needs no further adjustments except for those done at the factory.
Thru hole - though, gives you the ability to modify the design to suit needs like noise level performance as well as Selectivity and Sensitivity.
It's (the radios') - performance can be tailored to fit the need to the user - not the user to the radio that replaced the need of another radio because the original is outdated and no longer can be repaired. (perhaps both the User and The Radio are this way, but one can be trained - somewhat - to perform tasks that were not needed earlier - like reading an Owners Manual and things like Follow These Instructions)
SMD radios can be junk - especially if they are "copycats" from other designs - that simply tells us thru the now shorted $$$ user that they are not satisfied with the feel, performance and overall quality of a device that uses tiny little chips smaller and thinner than human hairs and that their eyes cannot resolve readily. The radio was made to a standard but they don't know what that standard is. They didn't learn in the process of making it how to make it better for the next user - they simply made it cheaper.
I guess the word is out - cheaper. So in a way, it fulfills a salesman's advantage - Cheap, Quality, Performance - choose any two...
:+> Andy <+: