I'd never considered the camera a POS, it's been a flawless performer for me as a guide cam since day 1, on Windows.
Last week I setup a Pi, oh what a nightmare - even the compatible firmware doesn't make it work right.
Turning off auto-bandwidth appears to make a significant improvement performance but not enough to justify continuing to use it when we get so few clear days in the UK - so its going to get replaced.
I think a QHY5-II mono has the same sensor/performance but without the bugs, would that be a fair assessment?