I think everyone is right here. It's just their opinion. I have 4 new Sterns since cabinet splitting has been reported. I, luckily, have not had the issue on any of them.

I picked up the brackets and the screws from Amazon. I intend to do all 4 corners, but I can see that the front would be the most obvious ones to do, especially because these will show the cosmetic defect immediately. So for sure, do the front 2 corners.

I liken it to putting Cliffy's on a game. Games never had them and survived without them. I put Cliffy's on all my games to prevent an issue instead of waiting for one. And Cliffy's, as well as the better leg brackets, are a small price in comparison to the cost of the machine.

I picked up a refurbished Monster Bash a few years back and I will say I was very happy to see the better leg brackets on all four inner corners. Just showed attention to detail... In addition to the potential splitting, the better bracket should prevent a "pull-through" which I tend to do when installing and over-tightening the leg bolts. The old style bracket was pulled right into the 45 degree wood corner spline. Did that on my Batman Forever... not fun. That whole widebody was a little wobbly. I'm in the process of re-doing that cabinet and will be installing the better bracket on all corners.

Thank you PinMonk for the motivation and the tips. Money well spent in my book. Even went a step further and replaced the plastic outer cabinet corners as they were pulling in and distorting during my upgrade.

First removedStern stock outer cabinet corners (resized).jpg
Then installed New steel outer cabinet corners (resized).jpg

Removed...Stern stock inner cabinet corner (resized).jpg
InstalledNew steel inner cabinet corner (resized).jpg