Oh Dear !
As mentioned in the introduction I have used LGB track for several decades. In those days LGB was owned and run by the Lehmann family. I was used, for about 10% of the time, to come across a piece of track where the fishplates (track joiners) were pushed on to to the rails by a truly excessive amount, and because they spot-welded the fishplates on to the rails it was, and is, a real pain to rectify.
The straight on the left with the different sleeper "grain" is an example of "old" LGB lack of production control, all the rest are from deliveries in the last month. The strange thing is that they can place the fishplate in the logical place, such that the rails meet half way along the fishplate, as per the curve on the right, but it is a rare chance that this will happen.
I had thought, that under Maerklin's umbrella ownership the cost cutting on track assembly might be a thing of the past but it has actually got worse. Please have a look at this example box of r5 curves. Half of them can get no grip on the adjoining track whatsoever. The fishplates have been pushed on so far that they have broken the sockets in the end sleepers, and some idiot spot welded them in this position! Whoever did this, either individually or by setting the machine plus whoever was in charge of quality control should simply be sacked, though on reflection it is blindingly obvious that Maerklin has no quality control in their LGB production facility.
I am sending this message to my Maerklin/LGB distributor contacts, and if they answer, I will post the reply here.
In the meantime I suggest that you only buy LGB track if someone inspects it first. It is tempting to say "if you want cheap rubbish you can go to China" but in all seriousness the Chinese usually do better than this and LGB, despite Hungarian production IS expensive. They have no excuse.
The LGB section of the website was initiated in March but may not be fully functional until April. By all means send an email if any items interest you.