this was the first I've heard about the 1k pads being wacker than the other pricier models. The train I thought I had, and others shared this, was that these pads are as durable and long lasting as the pads on the other models. With that being said, I do notice the few pads I use the most, like the Save and Load and 1 do have to be hit harder when I'm renaming files . . so I guess the majority sentiment is correct . . . I bang the hell out of mine though, so I would expect it to lose strength eventually . . . my fingers are soar right now as a matter of fact from bangin, i gotta give my finger a day to rest befoee i get back on - lol