Luckily, I have had no major fit and finish or technical issues with 6 NIB Sterns in the past 2 1/2 years. Of course I dialed-in a few things (primarily involving changes to default settings) and prophylactically replaced a couple of flipper coil stops that looked a little marginal, but this is all normal stuff.

Some people have the expected good experiences, others get stuck in a enthusiasm-sucking nightmare of seemingly endless issues.

The problem is consistency, and that will always be an issue as long as these things are largely human-built. I am not sure it can be improved much at this point unless someone figures out how to automate as much of the human factor out of the equation as possible, but the hardship that would inflict on the workers would be difficult to stomach and the pride of owning a complex handmade object would be lost.