The split of the Passat into Euro and American models is what drove me out of Passat and into Audi. Not just that they were separate cars - but that the American version was fatter, softer, cheaper, and threw out some of the most important factors I wanted - no wagon, no AWD. I did trade my 07 VR6 4motion wagon for the 13 CC Executive, but that was also due to the fact that in 2013 many wagons had dropped off the market, and scoring wagon/hatch plus AWD required stepping well over $50K for any reasonable equipment levels.
My faith was restored over the past year or two when a lot more hatches and wagons returned to the market just above and below the $50K mark with AWD options...I went from having essentially no choices in 2013, to having choices from BMW, Buick, Kia, Audi, and VW at least...and even considering some of the smaller CUVs that really are just cars, even more choices.
But the equipment I could get on the Arteon, at the price point I could buy it for, and with the size and space...the only other close calls were the Kia Stinger, which stepped up too high in price and didn't offer much in the way of color preferences for me, and the Audi A5 sportback, which would require too much skimping on the option sheet to keep it close to the Arteon - I still would have been in it for over $50K and probably wouldn't have gotten as good a discount either. Essentially, nothing in the end could deliver the power, space, equipment, luxury, AWD, hatch or wagon, with price under $43K out the door.
I don't actually feel any noticeable lack of build quality, feel, luxury, etc compared to my Audi. While some switchgear or bits here and there are different, I don't feel like they're cheap, light, or poorly built. I personally don't mind if a window switch is the same as one in a less expensive model, as long as it's a solid, well built, nicely damped, and good-functioning switch. So far, friends and coworkers who have checked out the car and ridden in it haven't deemed it 'lesser' than my previous Audi - one of my coworkers has an A5 sportback bought this year - he was impressed with how much larger inside and in cargo the Arteon was, and said he would have considered it himself if it had been available in January when he bought his.
I have gone between VW and Audi and back to VW, and don't find any big difference within similar price ranges. ie: the cheapest Audi models feel very similar to VW models in that $35-40K range, and the medium level Audi models int he $50K range to me feel very similar overall to a top-end VW in the $50K range. Of course, Audi goes much higher on the price scale, and higher end Audis get appropriately swanky. The rare times VW steps into those elevations, such as the higher-end Toareg or the Phaeton, I'd consider them quite equivalent.