So roll on a few years and our linear circuits lecturer at uni launched into a 30 minute diatribe about how utterly awful they are and to forget everything. And you know what, he was spot on. The points were specifically extrapolations of what you suggest i.e. poor biasing and feedback designs which forced relying on device characteristics. This was damage multiplied by the crappy second rate parts that Radio Shack sold.

I only ever assume people with positive memories of that crap either never built anything or were lucky enough to have parts that were binned as Mimms' were.