Same here. I still remember that fiasco wih Lenovo malware reinstalling itself even after a clean Windows reinstall. How does a company expect not to lose all trust with a stunt like that?
I think it would be more fair to say that Lenovo's IdeaPad division had this unethical behavior. ThinkPad is a separate division that never did this.
I don't have any inside knowledge, but based on how it played out, Superfish and its ilk must have been a bright idea that came from the IdeaPad division, not something dictated by corporate.
I'm also a big ThinkPad fan, and I keep buying them regardless of what happened with IdeaPad. Of course you may choose differently.