Acura is not supposed to exist other than in the North American market. It isn't even marketed in Japan. But I have seen an Acura dealership operating in Hong Kong.
When I said Lexus is the most refined, I meant that Lexus upgrades their vehicles more than BMW or Merc or any other luxury marque does. For example, the IS430 is a concept that's earmarked for production. If it's produced, it will be the most upgraded Lexus and will do a 0-60mph sprint in 4.4 sec and as a result, will directly target M-series and AMG.
The Type-R badge is used to simply indicate that it is the range and performance topping car of that Honda model. For example, the Integra Type R is more respected than the base model because of its performance talents. I have never heard of the SVT or TRD, so I can't comment on those.
BMW has the M-series not only to take on AMG, but to bring BMW to an even higher level of respect. Everywhere I go, whenever M3 or M5 is mentioned, people pay attention and would generally nod in approval of the name. Why? Because of its performance image.
That's why BMW has to create a different badge for its utes. Its simply not good enough for BMW to ruin its luxury sport image when many things are at stake now. If BMW doesn't, then a few years later, utes will start appearing in people's minds when BMW or M-series is mentioned. And believe me, utes are no sport-luxury-performance vehicles. They're there to do arduous labour.