It's all fashion. Right now Yaks are in style, a few years back it was Edges, before that Caps, etc etc etc. They all fly well provided they are well designed and built with a light wing loading. I've had a 50cc QQ Yak, 50cc H9 Cap (the old Alitalia one), a couple Ultimates, and now a 100cc Edge. Of those, the Cap is the best in high alpha stuff. You've never seen a more stable harrier, uppright, inverted, knife edge, rolling, no matter what, that thing in high alpha is magic. I love flying it, I do tail touches with it and have no stress doing so, it's so stable and predictable. Hovers are a little more difficult than others, it likes to fall forward, but nothing too hard. After that is the Edge, almost as stable in high alpha, hovers are easier, and of course it's bigger, and bigger is better. The Ultimates are the next best flying, they do everything well, with a little rock in high alpha, but it's manageable, and a tiny bit of spoiler kills the rock. And finally, the Yak was my least favorite. Awesome precision tracking, beautiful rolls, but it was the most unstable in high alpha, and it had some wierd traits. That thing never got anywhere near the ground, I just didn't trust it.

Wildhare has a new Sukhoi that people are in love with, it's supposed to be extremely stable in all attitudes, and I understand that the discontinued H9 100cc Suk was a great flying plane. Like I said, if it's designed and setup well, any design will fly well. The key is wingloading and control surface size for 3d stuff. Your statement about Caps couldn't be more false, I'd hand the controls of mine over to anyone even if they hadn't done a harrier before, it's so simple, bury the elevator, and modulate the throttle. No rock, no issues, you'd think it was flying on the wing if it wasn't moving at 5mph at a 70deg angle.

If I were moving up from a Funtana, I'd go to something like a Wildhare Edge or Extra with a DA50. If you want a Yak, I'd look at the SD models Yak, or Aeroworks QB. Personally, I wouldn't be buying a CMP or Goldberg, they come out heavy for the amount of wing area, and that's what causes problems.