Tim,
Thanks for jumping into my conversation with Bill. He and I have been poking at each other (friendly-like) online for several years in multiple forums. He wears a Great Pumpkin costume for Halloween, and I hope to get a blue bowling shirt some day. It's in good fun.
But since I apparently struck a nerve in you, I'd like to apologize for that. You obviously took my kidding with him seriously and personally.
As for digital communications being "better", I happen to come from the communications side of things. 10 years of working for a company called Intelligent Communication Systems, the small shop which created the communication system used by LodgeNet in their hotel entertainment system.
Digital, done correctly, CAN provide better signals as long as sufficient signal strength is there. Once it is low, it usually drops through the floor very quickly. Back in the old PCM days a lot of us (myself included) stayed with PPM systems because the analog system performance gave a warning that we were having trouble in that controls would get mushy or glitchy, but with PCM they were rock solid or NOTHING. No warning, just GONE.
If you run a long unshielded cable, it WILL pick up all sorts of common-mode noise which will often render the digital data unintelligible. While I have no personal experience with the Fut system and can't say one way or another anything about it's actual performance, as an communication experienced engineer I would definitely spend a good bit of time testing the performance in a noisy environment before using it on any model. But I'm a bit anal, I don't like to watch my models crash, and I know how to keep myself from a good many problems, and so I do those things I feel are necessary. Even when writing code.
Now, back to Bill: I suppose we need to start wearing hubs and servo leads around our heads when making childish videos now
Andy