Exactly, German engineers are often willing to trade off reliability for higher performance. Guessing they bump up the regulator settings to brighten the lights.
i don't know for sure, but i don't think german cars bump voltage to make lights brighter.
my previous 03 Jetta and current 07 Rabbit both use low beam as DRL. it's not that bright. on Rabbits, the beam pattern is way better so it helps, but the lights on jetta just plain sucked.
and jetta's light went out every year.
surprisingly, Rabbit's lights last a while, (only VW i know of that hasn't had tail lamps changed at all so far.).
but to OP's point, yes i agree when brand new car's has lights out, it doesn't give me good impression of the make of the car. annoyances with the owner is more significant if the car is POS in general.