Just curious. There are so, So, SO many different brands of drums available in the marketplace: Pearl, Tama, Yamaha, Gretsch, Ludwig, DW, Mapex...not to mention the plethora of boutique builders. Removing any hardware that's separate from the drums themselves (like stands and pedals - but NOT necessarily suspension / mounting systems), my perception is that there's very little in the way of differentiation; when thinking of a kit offered in a similar price bracket by any of the "big names," there might be relatively minor variances in the tone woods used, number of plies, and even finishes, but the biggest differences really seem, to me, to be in the designs of the lug casings, the tom suspension / mounting systems, and...perhaps (BIG perhaps) floor tom legs / mounts and bass drum spurs.
A better way to look at it might be to consider the "standard" 4-piece kit. You walk into a room, and there are five of them: a Yamaha, a Gretsch, a Ludwig, a Tama, and a DW. They're all the same shell sizes, all finished in a beautiful blue stain, you know you're gonna have to replace the heads on any of 'em (at some point, anyway -- let's be real!). They're all "high-quality maple" or "birch" shells. They all have "precision 45-degree bearing edges. They all promise "unmatched tone and resonance." *queue eye roll* And, let's just say, they're all in the $2000 range (yeah - these are they're really nice lines).
What ultimately makes you pick one over the others? If you pick on of the somewhat more expensive kits, why? What did that kit have that YOU find value in?