The fact of the matter is, shifter is going to be users preference. I have used hurst, pro 5.0, tri-ax, and mgw. All on the same setup, and all back to back tests street driving and at the track. All fitted with the same handle (even mgw). The hurst sucked terribly, the pro 5.0 was decent, the tri-ax is my favorite, and the mgw was over priced and under delivered. You can preach at me all day long that your setup will change how your shifter feels. When you go back to back with a shifter swap, you have a good comparison.
I don’t like the mgw. Again, users preference. OP was stating some of the same complaints I had with the mgw shifter. So I offered my opinion.
And going 5th and Rev with the mgw took too much effort. Enough effort that it made my shoulder sore.