I *think* what happens a lot,on here in particular,is that quite often one 'so called' or 'actual' knowledgable person say's something negative about something,and suddenly people are popping up all over the place agreeing,like the sheep mentality.I have even been guilty of this myself in the past,so not a dig BTW,not aimed at anyone in particular either,just an observation I have made over the years.
In the case of the poor old wintecs,it has happened a few times with various people slating them,and then everyone hates them!!
I have a wintec wide,and I love it,pony seems to go well in it also.
I thought long and hard about what to go for with my no wither,short and flat backed,roly poly lad,and the wintec wide ticked all the boxes.I was not disappointed when I finally managed to get hold of one either.It is the cair version as well,which so far I haven't had any problems with,touch wood.
I find it very comfy to ride in as well.
I think a lot of the fitting problems people have could be resolved by getting the type to suit the horses as well.The well known banana tree thing only applies to the 500 I believe,so obviously putting a 500 on something like a flat backed cob won't work,but the wide model would probably be fine as has a different shaped tree.My lad could probably depending on season,take a x-wide gullet but not on the 500 model as the shape everywhere else is wrong,but an x-wide in the wide model would be fine.Hope that makes some kind of sense,sounds a bit complicated I know,but what I'm trying to get at is that not ALL wintecs are the same,and yes some don't suit certain types due to their shape,but there are other models available that could offer a solution to some of the most common problems people seem to have.