I spoke to the elastic interface sales rep at china cycle and he told me not all chinese brands use fake elastic interface, but a lot do.
He was only able to confirm with me that Monton and YKYW use real EI pads and wasnt sure about the rest. He doesnt personally deal with domestic sales so he wasnt totally sure.
He also said that a lot of the brands using fake EI pads will call them 'double arrow' instead of 'Elastic Interface'(but this might only be within China. Maybe they can get away with it on Aliexpress?)
I visited Darevie's booth too and checked their pads and they look real(to me). Didnt see spexcel but if i have a suspicion that theirs are real too. I also checked some OEM manufacturers at the expo and did notice a difference in quality at some of them and one of them also used the words 'double arrow'(in chinese) when explaining their products to me.
Anyway, good to know and thought it would be useful to pass this information on!