Nothing sub par about the Tower trainers construction.
You will find many people saying this trainer is better or that trainer is best. The truth is most of them are perfectly fine.
I lean toward the Sig line and the Kadet Senior but that doesn't mean it is not any better than any other trainer out there.
There are exceptions. CPM models or anything from the Nitro-Models website, although ok planes the instructions are really bad and being new to the hobby you will want something with good instructions. Duraplane are built to be crash resistant but that also makes them heavier and requires them to fly faster to prevent stalling. The Hangar 9 PTS airplanes are open for debate, some like them some don't.