Quoted from thekaiser82:they designed the color scheme to better match the LE which I think is a bummer. I would have liked to see a good blend, so it looked great on any version. As far as brutal…there was a time where I was fairly sure I was going to take it to the back yard, light it on fire and dance around it. I was really frustrated. Then at around 750 games something started to click, and I can consistently make shots and progress to mini wizard modes, etc. Not sure where you are on play count, but for me it got better.
Agree with your comment about the color scheme- Stern probably figured that most (if not all) the LE Owners would likely be able to afford (or want) the topper- my guess is that they will make less than 1000 of these (enough for the LE Owners) + a few for those that 'might' want it, which would also possibly explain why it's priced so high in lieu of the licensing fee they likely had to pay Disney etc. If they sold 1000 (1000*2000) = $2,000,000 that might put a dent in their costs etc. Keep in mind each one is hand built, plus code, testing, support etc.
It would be nice if the code could 'detect' which model a person had (Pro/Prem, LE) and adjusted the color scheme accordingly...
I had a similar issue with scoring. Turns out that having the shaker motor makes things crazy in this game. Turning this off 'disabling' it in the settings, I was able to get much better scoring and progress farther in the game. Another option that you might employ (which I have not done) would be to move the lower the outlane posts on the playfield, this would mitigate the number of balls being drained via the outlane.