John,
I can't comment too much about it, not ever having owned one.
But from reading peoples complaints over the years, the main two problems were the flimsy column and the drive gearing system, whereby you really had to fit a belt drive to get smooth operation and reliability and make major mods to the column to get it rigid. It seems that those are the main issues that have been addressed, plus a larger motor, plus the option of R8 fitting, have all boiled down to not having to spend large amounts of cash to upgrade the machine to a reasonable standard.
In fact, if you took all the modification costs to get the standard X2 to this stage, you would almost be getting the machine for free.
The choice has to be with the buyer, and if I was wanting to buy an X2 sized machine with an R8 spindle, I know which one I would go for, gas strut or not, that would be the least of my worries.
John