Sorry to read that fountain pens were such a disappointment, but glad you found solutions that work. The rollerball pens of today are quite good, as are gel pens. Certainly light years beyond the Bic Crystal ballpoints of times past. Perhaps I was lucky, as my experience with fountain pens has been universally good.
Some venues are heavily censored, and therefore questionable sources of information. Others appear legit, but are actually trying to sell us something. Fortunately, there are now many pen blogs, as well as FPGeeks, Reddit /r/fountainpens, and YouTube. It is a marked improvement from 2005, when there was just the nascent FPN, Pentrace, the rapidly fading Rambling Snail, and and a very few posts about pens or on random blogs. The amount of information has increased exponentially, even over the last five years. As you noted, it can be very helpful to question what we are told and read between the lines.
And sometimes we just have different experiences, or we adapt around things.
I love a fire hose. I like nibs that write wet and broad. Pelikan - ideal for me. 80s Waterman gold nibs - bring it on.
But I also love the Platinum 3776 and to be honest, like most Japanese pens, its nibs write a little too dry for my taste. I simply use my wettest inks for the 3776s. Haven't even tried adjusting the nibs. So I know that the 'dry and scratchy' feedback from some people isn't anything to worry about with those particular pens... but when they say it about a modern Parker or Faber Castell, it might be worth listening to.
I have had to make my own judgements about pens. Some were perfectly good, but I didn't like them. I suspect it's the same for anyone. I have a few favorites that I still use when the occasion comes up, and just don't use the rest. Some, like Parker Sonnet, I have fixed drying out issues, and I might use them if I had any need. but I just don't write enough any more to use anything other than a Parker 51 or a Montblanc 144. All those Sonnets with all kinds of nibs, all the Esterbrooks with various nibs including italics. Well, I sometimes look them over and fool around with them. Old age is a new frontier.
I tend to look first at the number of negative reviews on anything on any site, then at the number of positives, and if the negative reviews amount to more than one, I take a closer read of those negative reviews. That usually tells me whether the negative reviews are real and valid, or just incoherent nonsense. If there are nothing but five star reviews, I glance at those, too. If they are all lacking in substance, then I keep that in mind. Pretty much I expect there to be one negative review (for any reason) out of every 20.
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