That is definitely an option if you are looking for something more powerful, a hatch, and is not CTR moneyWell at least the Veloster N is available now.
Except for the XRS, the Corolla is definitively not an enthusiast car. My brother has a 2003 S, and all it is is a Corolla with a body kit LOL. Toyota took a few dips into sports cars like the Celica and Supra (let's not forget the MR2), but overall their bread and butter are daily driver and luxury cars that last forever. Now to your last point, the Accord is very well made, good fit and finish, although there has been some complaints recently about the 2018 and 2019 Accords having issues with quality, they should have applied this to the Civic's as well. As for the Civic Si, again I agree they should have really addressed fit and finish, but as I said before, it is possible that due to the younger demographic mainly buying this car they didn't think that was importantCorollas have always had the reputation of being strong, though,
and cheap, but most of all, not sporty.
In the 2000s, there was even a threat of a class action against Toyota
because the annonced power was greatly overestimed ( 10 a 15 % ).
I think there was an out-of-court settlement, a certain amount of money.
This is not the case with the Si, which has always had the reputation of
being a sporty car, playful, fast car, in others words, NOT a car for
Sunday driver who drive in the left lane at 50 mi/h.
So, Honda knows that very well. They know that many customers
modify the cars for a little more performance. This is probably the most
modified kind of small car.
This why I blame them for having made an SI not powerful enough,with
a weak clutch, a gearbox not resistant enough to the engine torque
( it's cheaper to install a CDV than to reinforce the internal elements ).
I am disappointed by Honda's lack of respect towards the loyal SI customers.
I can tell you one thing. You won't miss the LSD unless you track the car or do a lot of "hard" canyon carving. It's a nice feature to have, but for everyday practicality, not a must. The Si was the first fwd car I owned with an LSD. Now FWD cars with more power (250 whp plus) should probably have an LSD to give them more traction in hard acceleration scenarios and to help minimize torque steerI don't have much new to add, but I too really wish Honda had made the Si as a hatchback as well. I much prefer the hatchback for its practical advantages in terms of cargo capacity/flexibility, and also the shorter body length (vs the sedan). I also am a performance and manual transmission enthusiast, and found the Si to have the best combination of legitimate performance features (as well as a few other features I wanted, like Android Auto) at a decent price with reasonable ongoing costs (maintenance, fuel, etc). An Si hatchback would have been just what I was looking for, but instead I was forced to choose between:
the Sport hatchback (is a hatchback and has reasonable price/costs, but less performance (particularly that it's lacking an LSD)),
the Si sedan (best combo of performance/features with reasonable price/costs, but sacrificing the practicality/usefulness of the hatchback), or
the Type R (crazy performance and a hatchback, but at much higher price/costs and no rear middle seat (despite that the room for it is there just like all the other hatchback trims)).
I understand that there were logistics involved that deterred them from making a hatchback Si (Si was specific to North America, but their North America manufacturing plants only made sedans and coupes), but there were ways they still could have pulled it off, or better yet they could have taken it into consideration before such major manufacturing decisions were made.
At the end of the day they still got a sale from me though; I considered how my vehicle's primary role would be for my daily commute, and that my wife should always have a bigger vehicle anyway, and so decided the advantages of the Si were worth it over what I had to give up to get a hatchback. Still annoys me though, as I've already ran in to cases where the limitations of the trunk prevented me from transporting some larger items (stuff that even looked like it could still fit in the trunk, but couldn't make it through the opening).