Well I have only owned one trike steerable plane myself which was my trainer when I first started flying, but I never had any problems with mine, but plenty from the club have told me that they are not very good, and have usually resorted to fixing them straight, but havent told me the actual reason why, I'll have to ask them.

My current taildragger has a steerable rear wheel under the rudder and gives good enough ground handling for me on our grass field.
Some planes are more suited to a trike where others are more suited to a tail dragger, and some can utilise both ways
But yes, each to their own really like you say.
I get on with taildragger or trike though, not much difference to take off & land.
Yep, RC Kens method is as good as any if a conversion is what Firestar wants to do though