I have had this shifter for over 3 years now. My feelings are quite the same as yours. The shifter feels nice and it's quite "real car" -like. The long throw took some time to get used to and it probably is not the fastest way to shift though.
I had a bit of a problem with the mounting clamps. My desk is so thick that the clamps wouldn't fit. The desk fit's between the two metal bars, but the the round plate and the rubber bit at the end of the screw wouldn't. I took the plate off to make it fit. Now the screw is directly in contact with underside of my desk, which has left big marks :worried: So definently a thing to check out before buying.
As for the plates. I got the ultimate pack, but they had some manufacturing problem with the sequential plate at the time, so I didn't get it (I could have backordered it for free later, but I kind of forgot about it). I switched the plates around at first, but later I have just had the 6+R plate on all the time and I have used my DFPs stick for sequential shifting.