In our opinions (which I realize a lot of people won't agree with) the Rocna is currently the best all-round small boat anchor design on the planet. It has worked perfectly so far in everything we've used it in--- sand, mud, weed, ooze, gravel.
I know there is no "perfect" anchor--- weather, water, and bottom conditions can combine in an infinite number of ways and defeat any boat-carried anchor design---- but in our opinions the Rocna comes as close to perfection as it's possible to get these days.
There are other anchors that come close-- the Sarca in Australia being one of them--- but all of them have at least one design feature I personally don't care for. Others prefer these design features.
Best thing in my opinion is to check out the websites for any anchors you're interested in and look at the videos and magazine reviews and so on. But far more important than these is to search out independent user testimonials about the anchor. We'd never heard of the Rocna when we decided to replace the anchor we had on the boat, and while I really liked the reasoning behind its "pro-active" design, it was the large number of extremely positive user-testimonals from all over the world, many from people cruising the southwestern Pacific, from the Dashews on down, that convinced us this was the anchor for us.
All that said, we bought our Rocna a number of years ago, when they were made by Rocna in New Zealand or by Suncoast Marine in Vancouver, BC. Shipping a 44# anchor from New Zealand was staggeringly expensive so at the suggestion of Rocna we purchased ours from Tom Pocock's manufacturing company in Vancouver which, according to Rocna, was using some manufacturing techniques that were superior even to theirs in New Zealand.
Since then Rocna has been sold--- twice--- and the manufacturing moved to China to help keep the price competitive. Now China can make great stuff-- Apple computers and iPads come from there and so do a lot of components of our airplanes. But there was some controversy over the materials that were being used in the initial Chinese-made Rocnas; the grade of steel being used was not what it was advertised to be. According to the current owner of the brand, Canadian Metals, that issue has been corrected. But were we in the market for an anchor today and were interested in the Rocna I would want to confirm as best I could that the anchor is indeed being made to specification.
None of which affects the superiority of the design. But a good design and quality manufacturing have to go hand in hand to ensure a great product.