What About Individual Responsibility?
They're 18, they can have anything they want. Why is it always the evil salesmen responsible for "steering" customers towards anything? As a guy who worked a salesman, I can say with confidence that you can't sell a customer anything they don't want (although I can proudly say I got one guy to buy a Speed 4 instead of an R6). Most of the time you will lose a customer--forever--and they just go to another motorcycle shop and buy some hyper-bike there.
Don't blame the salesmen, although there are unscrupulous ones out there. Instead, blame ignorance that can only be erased with mandatory training (that should include material on selecting and purchasing equipment of all kinds, including the bike) and mentor ship from smart, thoughtful guys like you.