Very true, Mazda paint is very thin and rather brittle/hard. I gotta see if I can dig up some articles on it but I recall how they used to brag about their proprietary process for coating cars and how it was "eco friendly" paint and advanced, painted in the Hofu Japan factory. "Eco" in the sense that there is less pollution in the process, a thinner yet more "stiffer" paint with less coats, touting it as durable/effective as other painting processes from other manufacturers but with less coats/material(though this part is of course debateable, haha,
).
On my 15+ year old Mazda that I had regularly waxed in it's early days, I too have a ton of rock chips and orange peel.
Next time I get a new Mazda(especially if it's a CX9, as the 2nd Gen's have aluminum hoods if I recall correctly... which is even harder to repaint/touch up) I will probably consider doing a clear vinyl wrap on the hood and front bumper... probably headlights too. I'd say it's probably not too late in most cases for current owners either as the oldest CX9's are only some 4 years old.