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@dan
It's not as accurate as powertap or power2max etc. I've had stages for about a year and a half, I had a powertap before that. Most recently I've been training on power2max on the road and powertap on the track.
There is a definite difference - stages has a noticeable lag and i find it harder to measure a consistent effort (you need to set it to a 5s or 10s average instead of 3s or none). It's noticeably less accurate the shorter and harder the effort is.When I first got my track powertap I did a side by side test using stages with omnium cranks - differences ranged from 0.5% at threshold, to 10% at peak power (it was a pretty straight curve % wise from one to the other).
So, if you're training for tt's or triathlon it's good, but not so much for crits, cross or sprinting.
That said, i've had stages for a year and a half and it has been a useful training tool. They're also a lot more robust than powertaps - which IME are pretty crappy hubs and quite fragile for something so pricey. You're also not stuck with the same, heavy wheel for everything.
If you've got power meter money to spend, it would probably be best to spend it on a power2max - they've come down in price and are much more accurate.
Re: battery issue and casing issues - I believe these have been resolved now. My stages has now goes 6 months on the same battery with daily use (my first one was replaced on warranty after the battery case split).