The Civic gear shift, at least on that mark, is widely heralded as one of the all time great shifts - feel, precision, throw, force, slop - it comes out brilliantly in them all. And, I might add, it gives the MX-5 shift a run for it's money. You'd be hard pushed to find two better cars for gear level feel without spending silly amounts of money.
No, I haven't driven one. But do you REALLY need to. Did you believe that New York existed before you went there? Do you believe that space is a vacuum without having been there? If you refuse to believe things you've read then your education must have been pretty lacking.