The reason you probably aren't getting a lot of feedback so far is that FT'ers experienced in China likely don't use those sorts of companies when they do a group tour, or they go independently. Have you tried asking on Fodors or more targeted luxury travel forums?

IMHO travelling with companies such as these to China isn't travelling the "easy" way, it's travelling the stupid way. When you dig into the offerings, it's pretty much similar types of itineraries and sights to the lower and middle-range mass marketed tours, just with fancier hotels and restaurants, and maybe more kid-glove handling. But at least for China, the value really isn't there once you get above a certain price point, you're paying essentially for branding. I don't know the local Chinese providers who are fronted by these companies you mentioned, though I do know the one for luxury provider Absolute Asia (it's very good, and I used it directly to set up a customized, independent tour for my parents at about 1/3 of land cost compared to the US-marketed equivalent).

I respect that you want to do a tour to make things hassle-free and that's OK. May I suggest that you go in one of two directions: either do a group mass market tour that may not put you in the Ritz Carlton, but you'll get most of the same stuff for 1/2 the price or less. Or, really get your money's worth and have a good company set up a custom private tour for yourself/your party without the groupie stuff. If possible, try to choose a company that handles its own China arrangements directly. One such company I'm familiar with that you might look at is www.wildchina.com who do some pretty interesting things but can also deal with the standard stuff.