The differnce between "an Aston language mill A in Y and another one B in Z" is that they are run by different local management who probably holds a set of values different from eachother, and probably also carry different opinions on how their franchisee should be run. One of them, no doubt about it, earning money and making a living. But they are of course obliged to follow the statutes of Aston headquarters, and are therefore a part of the Aston business model, so it would be nice if you could specify a little more what you think is so bad about this model?

And again, I am very aware of the faults in the Chinese industry of teaching, but I don't have the impression that Aston is in the bad end of the scale.