I’ve got two- or is it three – Thomsons and a Reverb.. Until a couple of months ago, I’ve have said Thomson every time, but my Covert has started creaking badly at full extension. Drop the post for ten seconds then raise it again and it stops for a few minutes then comes back. It’s had a fair bit of use, but seems like a recognised issue and a warranty job to fix.
My Reverb is first generation and has had a lot of hammer. I wore out all the bushes and the pins, but it was an easy enough job to service and it’s been fine since.
On balance the Thomson is a nicer thing and has a quality feel to it, but it’s not flawless and it’s not user maintainable if your’e that way inclined. I’m not sure that’s much help, but there you go.