Carl,
Some good points, and I've never seen any problems with any brand of receiver.

I will say however, that I've heard of people losing their planes becasue they took off with the Tx antenna collapsed. I have flown twice now with a collapsed antenna with my Futaba equipment. The first time I flew 2 or 3 full circuits of the field at probably 75 to 100 feet altitude before I realized it. Second time was less dramatic, but my point is, I still had control of the planes.

It may have been as much my choice of Rx antenna routing (to the vertical stab), but....
Dennis-