To me, the ANH FX is a decent attempt at a graflex ON A MASTER REPLICAS FX LEVEL. ;) I'm a firm believer in having different standards for different categories. Everyone, for example, holds Yoda's Graflexes at the highest standard - which is the way it should be, because you're getting true workmanship and value with his sabers.
But when we're talking about the MR FXs, we have to leave A LOT of latitude for inaccuracies, cut corners, etc. They're to be expected. It's all about the FX first, replica second issue. Most of the MR sabers are FXs first and foremost - the company designs the replica around the electronics, rather than the electronics around the replica. Fine, that's the standard that has been set ever since the first FX was released in 2002.
So the MR sabers get the job done based on the standard that has been set for them already. There are a lot of happy people out there who are absolutely thrilled and satisfied with their MR FXs - as they should. They're still very cool things after all. I mean they power up and power down, you can get em in different colors, and they make all sorts of neat lightsaber sounds. ;)
This doesn't mean, however, that creaking is to be accepted as a cut corner. Creaking is a major problem with the ANH FX and is totally unacceptable - that much is for sure.
But in regards to the general design, if you want a graflex that's as close as possible to the saber Luke held in ANH and TESB, you know where to go. ;D