I read some of those reviews as well, and it made me extremely hesitant. However, I noted the dates of the reviews and most were during the Saitek version. The Logitech (grey) versions seems pretty good so far. I like that the switches and switch guards on the throttle quadrant are metal, and they are toggle switches. That means they each can be bound to dual actions/commands. The throttle is smooth - no snags like the T16000m throttle. It is a bit stiff for my taste, even when loosened all the way, but I've read from other posts on the forum that this goes away after a couple of weeks' use.
When I booted up DCS and went in to set up axis/curves, the stick was not centered on either axis. I went into the Logitech software and ran the calibration for each and issue resolved.
I hope this helps you out.