There must be an element of truth in the bore scoring scaremongering but I still think how you use the engine can make the difference. I had the 996 and a Boxster of the same era, the same goes for the Kseries Elise I had which also had a bad reputation,, the cooling is remote from the engine and careful heat management is the key. Sustained use of full power is fine but you needed to bring it up to temperature gently and even more importantly cool it down the same way. I do that with all engines and I never once worried about any of the well publicised problems of either of those cars. At the time, I needed the back seat of the 996 but the Boxster was the better car, the Elise was far more exciting than both and the Ferrari is really just a property built Elise. It does have too much power but once you’ve got used to enough power the excitement comes from having more than you’ve capable of applying. The 996 design is ageing well now, it’s gone beyond the sad, unfashionable stage and the tidy ones are really looking good, particularly the most basic models, it’s such a pure shape.
Your experience mirrors mine except that I only ever tried the Porkers, several times, when thinking of selling the Elise. The latter was totally reliable thanks to a Toyota engine - I avoided the Rover ones because the K series head problems were very well known in all the cars the engine was used in whether front or rear. So were the intermediate shaft and bore scoring of the vanilla (ie non Metzger) 996 and 997.1. But try as I may I found something missing in the Porkers, particularly the Boxter and I did really want to like them as a much more sensible buy than the Ferrari. It could be that they were so free of quirks as to be a bit boring and certainly the interiors were DIN standard German, very similar to the BMW and Mercs that I had. But thats a personal view and the numbers you see on the roads suggest many other would not agree.
Your description of the Ferrari as a well built Elise is debateable for me since my Elise was and still is the most reliable car that I have owned over 7 years. But in design terms you are right which is flattering to Ferrari IMHO. The Elise is undoubtedly the pinnacle of British sports car making.
