As someone who test drove everything from the Solstice, Boxster, Elise, Z4, and TT in my decision making process I can see where reviewers find faults.
I have not driven one but I have sat in a Sky and driven the Solstice. The top is a PIA compared to most any other convertible, but that is the price to pay for the good looks of it tucked away. There is a lot of hard cheap interior plastic, not as bad as the solstice in my opinion and even the more expensive Z4 has a pretty craptastic interior in my opinion. The power isn't stellar in the base model but it seems like a nice tuner platform to me.
The Miata's interior materials are ever so slightly nicer but the design is ugly. Driving feel is subjective. Reviewers tend to like the fact that you can get the Miata going sideways easily and controllably, but I prefer the smooth and glued feeling of the Solstice and Sky who can actually out corner a Miata. The Miata has a super easy top and usable trunk. I think the new design loses some of the classic good looks. The Sky and Solstice just kill the Miata on exterior design.
Z4, ugly inside and out, good handling, reliability issues in newer cars, fast and powerful, uninspiring and I see more Z4 on the roads in LA than I do Miatas.
TT, great looks, good interior design with real metal accent pieces not metal painted plastic. Heavy and ill handling, more of a posing car for the design crowd.
Boxster, I admit Porsche bias since I own a Carrera S, but this car is great, especially the S version. Nice interior albeit it still has some ridiculous crappy plastic, fast as hell, handles like it is on rails, lot of storage, mid-engine, BUT, options are stupid expensive and the car is pricey to start with. They are reliable and great but for the money they still are not a 911 and I don't much care for Porsche service.
The Lotus Elise gave me fits. It is a superb car that not only embarrasses every sports car around it's price, but cars costing $200+K. My 100K Porsche is nothing compared to the Elise. It is the best bang for buck on 4 wheels. It still runs in the 50's when dealers add on the few packages available to it. It is a PIA getting in and out of. You look kind of silly rolling out onto the ground of you 50K car. The interior is spartan to say the least, it is a race car first so interior niceties are pretty much non-existant. The ride is load and so firm your chiropractor will never go out of business.
So while the Elise was the best bang for buck sports car, the Sky I am hoping will be the best smiles per mile car for me. It is about 1/2 the cost of the Elise, a ton more comfy, should handle great based on my solstice drive, and looks sexy as hell.
So CR can stick that in their tail pipe and smoke it.