No need to call them lies.
Of course there are (and must be) many properly working Logitech sticks per one faulty one, but according to user experience from plenty of other people besides me, the percentage of the faulty products is alarmingly high. Thus I wouldn't want to risk my money for it.
I'm glad that your stick works all right, Cobra. My Saitek also works perfectly after about 8 months of use, as any joystick should work. My 3D Pro also worked for about 4-6 months (can't reemember correctly). Then it just started having more and more symptoms similar to those described on links. Unfortunately, my use of that stick was... sporadic, and when it died, the warranty was over, so that was the story of that stick. Shame, really, because it
is a killer stick as long as it works. Great shape and button placement, and the base stays where it's put.
Oh, and about twist handle: I know it's not *necessary*, but once you get your first stick with a twist handle, you realize how much you have missed.
After all, it gives you 50% more control compared to a stick with just pitch and yaw axis (in space sims), as it adds one more easily controllable axis to your ships movements: the roll axis. And of course, rudder is a must to have if you play
any flight sim games at all. Twist handle is a very useful function IMO, but it all comes to the question "what kind of games you play?" With flight sims, you NEED a rudder; in space shooters you can manage without the roll axis.
And about playing Freespace with mouse and keyboard; it works best when you put the mouse sensitivity to maximum. That way you don't need to drag/move the mouse half as much as with lower sensitivity settings. Joystick kicks ass when you have to dogfight; if you need to, say, pound energy mines with Maxim from a great distance, mouse gives better accuracy. Somehow, I tend to think that the joystick is the only real way to go with space shooters...
