In its heyday, the PME was considered to be one of the best mounts available, alongside other masterpieces such as the AP-1200 and Tak EM-400/500. But all of those are based on the old way. Now there is a new and better way. The new and better way - direct drive, the professional's way of choice for a long time - will not be without its initial teething issues, just as the mounts preceding it had their own when they were the new way.
Think about this: the people who were amongst the very first to take a chance and buy the PME - a mount initially derided as "untested", "unproven", "too expensive", "not worth it", etc by the usual stick-in-the-muds - are now planning to move up to the next stage, direct drive, if they haven't already, ditching issues such as PE and guiding.
The people who initially denigrated the PME, later - much later - became the PME's most vocal fanboys and still are. They, the belated PME adopters, are the people who are now panning the direct drive mounts, while the people who know a great thing when they see it are trading up from the PMEs they bought a long time ago to the direct drive mounts.
It seems pretty obvious that the late adopters are unwilling to accept that direct drive mounts are going to supplant gear-based mounts. If you're willing to cling to the religious faith that "the Paramount ME is the best there'll ever be", and hate the idea that the mount you or your friends just paid a lot of money for is no longer the top of the pile, then I guess you'll continue to pretend that nothing can ever be better. But it won't change reality. The pros use direct drive technology and now the amateur's time has come too.
