I think direct drive is better, and they are of high price as well. I have a Tacx Flux that lasted 45min (yes, that's minutes), and now I have a Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ Trainer for about 1/2 yr with no issue.

With the direct drive, besides accuracy, there is no tire wear, it seems a little quieter, and it supposed to have a better "road feel". The flux unit is a lot heavier too.

Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ was about 1/3 of the cost, I use my old tires on it (you can see the tire dust in the back of the roller), it still has some "road feel", smaller and light unit, and I used the money left in my pocket to buy a better wheelset for the road, use the older wheel for the trainer.

Its pretty easy to get the bike on and off the trainer, and there is no tensioner to mess with. the "tension" is from your sitting on the bike, pressing the tires against the roller. If you unweight the back, its easy to spin the tire on the roller.

Its not without its drawback. Besides the tire dust, the response of the resistance change is slow. for example, in ERG mode, if I need to 10 sec of internal going from 125W to 550W. I can never reach 550W because the trainer is slow to react and by the time I get to north of 500W, the 10 sec would be over.

You get what you pay for it, sorta. I don't race, and no sponsor is paying for my trainer. So I am happy with the Elite + good wheelset for the road for the same money of the Tacx Flux direct drive. I figure it my Elite unit last for 36 months, my zwift membership would have costed more and I consider the Elite trainer already paid for itself. (if the Flux breaks in 2.5 yrs, I am pretty sure it will cost me more than $300 to fix. And their customer service slow and horrible)

my $0.02, YMMV