Technivorm Moccamaster KBT Coffee Maker

I kind of had my doubts about Moccamaster, but with the glowing reviews, I pulled the trigger during a decent sale. I'm no coffee snob, but I love good coffee, and wondered if a unit that met the "golden cup standard" would make even better tasting coffee than my old maker (which is supposed to meet the standard, but actually falls short temperature-wise). The Moccamaster brews much faster than my old unit and has no bloom phase (I didn't know about this prior to ordering - I assumed it would have a bloom phase). The coffee taste profile is also somewhat different (more acidic), and I prefer the taste of the coffee brewed from my old unit. Also to consider is that none of the covers are hinged, so it's much less user friendly than a standard coffee maker; you have to physically lift off both the filter cover and the reservoir cover, to load the filter and fill with water. It tends to get water droplets wherever I temporarily set the covers, which is annoying for cleanup. The covers and filter housing are also very light plastic and feel cheap. Pouring water into the reservoir is also more difficult, since the water outlet arm blocks of part of the reservoir, unlike other more standard coffee makers; if you hit the arm with the flow, it'll cause water to fly all over, and will also direct cold water to run into the filter housing area. As an engineer and very practical hands-on person, it's a real head-scratcher to me why this unit is so highly rated - it's not a user-friendly design at all, and in my opinion the coffee is makes is subpar. From other reviews, I don't doubt that the unit will function well for years, but we've moved beyond this kind of outdated design. Overall, I'm really not impressed considering the cost of the unit, even on a decent sale.