Well, I read somewhere that the original equipment tires are marked up because people want to replace their tires with "the same ones". Given that honda was in the position of buying a couple hundred thousand tires that would be "good enough" for everyone in the US, I figured there's probably something that would fit my exact needs better than the one size fits all choice. Howerver, if it turns out that there isn't, I'll be happy buying the same ones.

Matthew