Shifting is very easy, you have to realize that it is a cable shift and not solid rods. This may be some of the cause of the misshifts that some people have experienced. They try to ram the shifter from gear to gear and they don't need to force it, and they are pulling and exerting pressure towards themselves and going from a higher gear to a lower gear by accident. But noone ever thinks it's their fault, they almost always want to blame Acura. Watch the guys in the WRC shifting, they hardly put any pressure on the shifter, if they use it and not paddle shifters on the steering column.
There are a few minor problems that have been encountered a grind going into second gear, and a notchiness when the car hasn't warmed up from 1st to 2nd. We have one of the earlier ones as we got our TypeS on the 7 of July 2001, our production number is below 1200. All we have experienced is the slight notchiness, and it wasn't noticeable to us until I started reading about it in all the RSX forums. My wife and I have been driving stick shifts for a lot longer than most of you have been around, as we are 50 and 52, so I think it's mostly a matter of inexperience (in years) of driving sticks.