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It could be called middle of the road, I guess. I've driven some really bad manuals in my time, including a 1980 Pontiac Phoenix with a 4MT and no hydraulic assist on the clutch. Or the steering. One of the worst manuals I've driven in a relatively modern car was on a Mazda 3 (2008, maybe?). The gear selector felt like it was going to break in my hand and the clutch was so light I could barely feel it under my foot. I've heard a few folk rave about that manual, though, so...matter of perspective and experience.
My car philosophy has ALWAYS been to learn the car I'm driving rather than expect it to be something I've imagined or a car I had once upon a time that I've attached a lot of emotional baggage to. This 6MT has been around for a long time. It's the same one that was on the F80 (though not exactly the same one that was on E90 M3 from what I could glean while filling time with some research...could be wrong and it's just different gear ratios). It's durable, functional, and performs very consistently once you learn it. It also clearly has a break in of at least a couple thousand miles so some press cars may have been better appreciated if they'd had more miles on them.
So is it middle of the road? Still "probably". Are its flaws a reason to skip one of the last manual performance sedans? Nope. Just the opposite. Cars aren't supposed to be perfect, the flaws can be character if you let them be.
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