I hate to contribute to another redundant thread, but I'm in the same boat as many. My only two NIB purchases were XM and MET. I really like both games, but am waiting for code to be finished on both as well.
I think MET will be fine because Lyman himself has a history of finishing off his code. If that isn't finished that becomes a direct reflection of Lyman because I'd like to think he has enough pull at Stern to do what he personally thinks is the right thing to do. If he doesn't, it'll be his first black eye in the industry.
On the other hand, If XM isn't finished off it is an indictment on Stern that the company policy is to work on new games rather than finishing off old. Stern does have unfinished games in the past to lend credibility to this view. In the end the only way Stern will put resources back onto XM is if customers keep that on Stern's visibility list by contacting them directly, and their distributor. This is how Transformers was finally fixed.
And this track record does also have me reconsidering any NIB purchases going forward. MMR is the only one coming up with guaranteed finished code.