I don't think the criticism of STI on Benos is particularly universal. I lurk on Benos because I am not a formal competition shooter, but because I have some STIs I pay close attention to threads on that subject. My impression is that the angst over the company is the same as you hear on this forum -- where the heck is the company going with all the name and model changes, particularly the termination of popular models. When STIs go up for sale on Benos or here, they seem to sell. I have been griping somewhat about STI on this forum for the above reasons but not because of build quality.
The thing with the warranty I do not understand. As much as folks talk about the warranty, the talk means nothing, only what the warranty says in black and white. I do not understand why they are making an issue about Staccato C grips because I do not own a C. I would not buy one because I have a couple of compact 1911s I would carry if I wanted to carry a compact single stack. Again, that is a model design issue.