Species for bonsai...and commercially produced 'bonsai'

I got involved with an online discussion via Facebook about Fukien Tea (Ehretia micropylla).
The original poster had bought a Fukien bonsai at the Minnesota
State Fair last year and it died within two weeks. Postmortem
examination showed badly compacted soil and few roots.
Flash forward to this year's Fair, when the poster had the chance to speak to the dealer and tell this sad tale.Good news is the dealer gave him a replacement plant, pictured at right in the lower photo-the corpse of the original tree is the subject of the upper image.

First, that's a stand up kind of vendor to provide a total replacement in that way. The OP wanted to know where and how he may have gone wrong with the first plant, and his reason for starting the thread on Facebook was to get some advice on better care for the replacement plant.  As so often happens on the interwebs, helpful advice was interspersed with some snarky comments. While several responders like the plant and thought it grew well for them, a nay sayer called it a horrible subject and where but the tropics...a 'shit species'.

Harsh words, right?  The conundrum may be that both sides are right. What owrks in my back yard may not work in yours and all that. It is not common for a bonsai grower
have hard feelings or even bitterness over a plant that
they don't have success with. I think it's partly about bruised
egos. Say the word Serissa to a group of bonsai growers and see how they react-this is a plant I have noticed is very polarizing: some folks can't seem to keep it alive while others call it a weed an seemingly need to resort to Roundup to get rid of it.

There are several points to be teased out of this mess. Is Fukien
Tea a 'shit species'? As we so often hear in bonsai, It Depends. The individual who made the statement listed the plant's draw backs this way:
 "They hate under watering, drop leaves and sometimes die, hate over watering, same deal. Movement can equal death, as can substrate change. Shit species."  

Like most sweeping statements, there is an implied "in my experience" tacked on the end.  Fukien is a very popular bonsai subject in China, where they are native and lots of folks in the warmer parts of the US have great success with them.  Because you can not or will not provide the needed cultural conditions for a plant to thrive does not mean the plant is at fault (usually). This is part of the challenge not just with bonsai but horticulture in general.  We have a sort of chauvinism that the living organisms we want to surround ourselves with ought to like our human-centric  environments as much as we do.  Clearly some people can get worked up when our pets or our plants object to the living conditions we provide them.  As plant care takers we need to be alert and observe, so we can be assured our plants do well.

On a more practical level, what happened to the first now deceased plant (nonsai? This is an ex-bonsai?) It is very hard to say after the passage of time and with out more information.  My guess is wet feet-too wet inside the pot.  That may have come from over watering, a very common fault in new bonsai growers. Also this bonsai has all the hallmarks of mass produced bonsai.  These are cranked out on a massive scale, assembly line fashion and good design and good horticulture take a back seat to getting produced delivered to market at an acceptable price point.  Prime example: these so called "bonsai" are rarely potted in what you would consider real bonsai soil.  Typical house plant soil is easier to get, far cheaper (price point!) and does not need watered as often.   The sin is compounded by the lack of knowledge that sellers of this grade of bonsai are able to provide.  No personal insult intended, but they are business people selling a commodity. They don't grow the bonsai they sell, often don't know about the care of individual species beyond what is printed on the photo-copied care sheets they pass out with each victim.  Most of these bonsai are headed for the same fate that carnival goldfish have to look forward to: a short period of uncertain and uncomfortable existence.

Does this mean that commercial quality should be avoided? That is an individual choice. To muddle a metaphor they should be taken with a grain of salt.  It may be that given certain financial and geographic circumstances, this is the only sort of bonsai stock available.  With some experience, such a misbegotten bonsai might be rescued, repotted with good soil, given adequate light and water, given a design upgrade-there may be a good bonsai lurking there after all.