You're right about the plastic flexing which may prevent ice/snow from building up in the chute and clogging same - still kind of cheesy though and the plastic directional gear gets tough to turn sometimes - waiting for that to stip out/break. I also have trouble with the height flap not staying where I set it - keeps dropping down after a few seconds shooting the snow right next to me - I haven't really looked to see how to lock it better in place yet. Are all the other manuf's chute's plastic now too? I would tend to believe it is a cost issue rather than a design change?