The OP fails to note that the issue is not whether brands have lemons.
The issue is a combination of the rates of lemons that go out of the store (by some dealer accounts, at one point last year Taurus was over the 60% return mark on NIB guns), and the experiences people have dealing with customer service in the event of a problem.
From following this and other forums; from personal experience and the experiences of friends; and from talking with dealers I know (as opposed to ostensible FFLs online whom I do not know), these are the trends I've observed:
S&W gets high marks for QC and CS. So does Colt.
Beretta gets very high marks for QC, but poor marks for CS.
SIG gets fairly high QC, fairly high CS; used to be high-very high in both, but had some hiccups over the last couple years.
Ruger gets high QC and CS. Ruger recalls are normally not held against them, because Ruger tends to be proactive about recalling and repairing problems. That said, I'd wait for the second year of a new Ruger model, but that's me.
Taurus gets consistently poor marks for QC, and despite the "Lifetime Warranty," gets consistently poor marks for CS.
Charter (the old original, and the current iteration, but not the interims) gets good marks for QC and CS.
I haven't read up that much on Rossi.
SO... while S&W does have the occasional lemon (as does Colt, or for that matter Beechcraft, BMW, and Chris Craft), S&W has fewer lemons, and has a better track record for making lemon owners whole, than do the brands the OP is defending.