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Front derailleurs suck
It's interesting that you should say that.
I've never had much trouble with front derailleurs. The Welsh tour bike mentioned above had a Benelux rod changer which I was given and which I fitted without any problem that I can remember, although I was a bit concerned that rod changers weren't cool.
More recently my old training bike(high mileage) has a front changer of unknown make which is obviously clapped out (it's loose and wobbly) but since it still works ok I haven't bothered to replace it. Similarly my Cyclo Standard touring bike (see Pre 1950's thread) had a cable operated front changer which really should not have worked : 46/32, 3/32" chainrings with an 1/8th" chain and antique rear mech. No problem.
However, the cable changers are all on friction levers.
Perhaps modern front derailleurs have become more difficult to set up?
clubman-
FDs are fine. Better range, better chain retention, probably less wear on stuff and more efficient due to better chainline, something to do with your other hand while not applying sunscreen and crashing into potholes, yada yada...
I've never had any issue with my 7800 FD but the newest cable ones are more finicky. I do not like.
Di2 is kinda odd initial setup (especially because they have what everything thinks are limit screws, but they aren't and no one reads the manual) but then just works on anything pretty much and I forget about them
hippy
Front derailleurs suck. Double maintenance if you have cables, double things that can break, not easy to adjust for the average user and there's always the possibility of a dropped chain even if it's perfectly set up.
I work on bikes and rear derailleur it's usually half a turn of the barrel and maybe set the distance right whereas front derailleurs are usually so badly set up I have to start from scratch