They're right about the no repair thing. Shimano is notorious for that; it's one of the reasons I hate the company. But one of the reasons I used Shimano anyway is that even the fairly low-end stuff works pretty well. My two road bikes are worth at least $6000 together, but they're both running bar-end shifters. They last forever, work great and have a friction option.
If I were really a purist, I'd use $20 downtube shifters, but I'm not...