Why go to the trouble. Billet does not equate being stronger. Within a given material the strength is mostly in the design, not nearly the method of fabrication. The only reason I can see that the Herbst Truggy uses billet uppers is because of the upper steering/suspension joint design. If it were a std Uniball I'd guess that they would have gone with a weldment.
Think about it this way, if there were a species of wood strong enough would you rather hog it out of a big board, or would you rather cut strips and laminate it together ? I'd rather go laminated. Hogging it out of a board cuts the grain of the wood which makes for gnarly shear planes. Metal really isn't much different.
TS
"It only seems kinky the first time"
-- Bumpersticker seen in Lost Wages