I can't speak to the specific models that you are interested in, but, will speak to a couple of the generalities that you bring up...
The front window is problematic for many manufacturers and over the years, most have quit making them. Not so much for the cracking and breaking, but, for the leak proclivity. The front of a trailer, while traveling down the highway at 60-65 mph takes a heck of a beating and mix rain into the picture and leaks are not uncommon. The leaks can be prevented by vigilance and reapplication of the sealant around the frame, but, many people either didn't know they needed special attention or just got lazy and didn't follow the "rules" and had leaks...that leads to a lot of bashing of the brand of trailer and most manufacturers just quit making them in order to prevent the bad reps, even though the fault wasn't in the manufacture. That's for a "perfectly made" trailer and we all know there is no such thing...add inattentiveness by the assembler and you have instant water leakage problems. I, for one, was sorry to see the front window go away (it was actually one of the reasons that got us into our FunFinder in the first place). We did have one minor leak; I caught it really early, re-caulked and kept an eye on the sealant's integrity and never had any further issues with it. Don't shy away from a front window model because of what you've read. They make the trailer much lighter inside and bring an "open" quality to even the smallest models. Be aware though that they do require the "extra" care in maintenance; you should always inspect the caulking all over the trailer every 6 months, but, you should pay special attention to a front window's seal. In the 4 years we towed our 210WBS, I had the one leak episode (no damage - three drops of water on the pillow) and zero other problems once I fixed that one leak and we had many years of gazing out of an extra window and the daylight that it let in.
As for greater cargo space equaling a better build or heavier frame... There are several factors that affect how much storage (read cargo) a trailer is rated for. One is utilization of space. All trailer have oodles of empty spaces in them; inherent in putting "things" inside a box. One of the signs of a well thought out trailer is how easy that extra space is accessed. That really great space under a jack-knife sofa's box mounting is useless unless you can access it. Access to these spaces is a sign of thoughtful engineering and design. When these spaces are "opened up" to usage, that results in the ability to add more weight and adding more weight means having the frame and suspension necessary to carry that extra weight. So, yes, the additional cargo capacity usually speaks to a heavier duty frame, but, more importantly, at least to me, it speaks to the thought in the design process. If the design process has that much more thought put into it, it leads me to, possibly a mistaken impression, but, an impression, none the less, that the overall quality of the trailer may be raised a smidgen as a result. Well thought out designs do not always translate into a better quality build, but, if a company puts that much more effort into design, they usually tend to put some extra effort into build. Unfortunately, the way the market for RVs is, everybody wants a palace on wheels for a cabin in the woods price. The only way that happens is a cut on the manufacturer's build practices. Over the years there have been many "best built" or "quality built" RV manufacturers go broke because, we, the buying public, wouldn't pay the true cost for that quality.
Models with outside kitchens will always be "slimmer" on storage and capacity than those without the extra kitchen. You can't add a kitchen and not loose storage space; a box has a finite number of cubic feet, that's just plain physics. Until we develop a TARDIS (you have to be a Dr. Who fan for that one), if you add "things", you loose space. A lot of people like the extra outside kitchen...we don't. If, when we are looking at RV's, we see an outside kitchen, we move on. Regardless of what the inside has to offer, I don't care to give up the "space" for having two kitchens to take care of, keep control of leaks, have to stock (do you duplicate things or do you have to remember which kitchen has the spatula?). An outside kitchen will also cut down on the cargo carrying capacity...that kitchen not only takes up "space", but, also reduces the cargo capacity by whatever all that kitchen stuff weighs.
As for quality of trailers you mention? The word quality is problematic with any RV made. Despite the claims, you will find that all the different makers use the same products to assemble their version of an RV. There are only a handful of appliance makers; Suburban, Dometic, Norcold, Atwood, etc. and all the manufacturers use these in their products. The Suburban refrigerator in the FunFinder is the same Suburban refrigerator used in a KZ... How they are "assembled" is a different matter. Unfortunately (and I tend to get on my soapbox when people complain about the "junk" they bought), we have brought the quality issue on ourselves. When you refuse to pay what it costs for quality, and then walk into a dealer and "demand" 30% or more off of that or there is no deal, then the maker has only one option, besides closing down, and that is to skimp and the only real place to skimp is assembly in order to keep the price down. Quality is going to come down to what you perceive and how much effort you are willing to put into keeping that mobile home on wheels (don't get me started on calling it "camping"!) operating and how diligent you are about staying on top of repairs and there will be, believe me, repairs. RVs are like boats; a boat owner has two moments of pure ecstasy...the moment he buys the boat and the moment he sells it. I bought a FunFinder, as opposed to the hundreds of others we looked at, because I saw an effort to build quality higher than the others, I saw a quality of the "pieces" used to build the unit (aluminum frames throughout and good quality filon walls) and the thoughtfulness of the overall design. I was never disappointed in our choice and was deeply saddened that FunFinder (CruiserRV) didn't make 5th wheels when we needed to go "really big" for part time living on the road.
Good luck in your choice and welcome to this forum and to the world of RVing. You'll have your ups and you'll have your downs, but, the folks, for the most part, are a great group and FunFinder owner's are the best (with a few Cougar owners thrown in for balance :wink: ).
