I think it depends what you want to get out of the vehicle. the fact you are looking at the FR spec means you want somthing thats sporty……..
I’ve had this engine in a golf GT.
As you will have experienced it has bags of torque and when driven sensibly can return good MPG
My real world experience saw me get 36mpg during the year I had it, I’d come from a Mk5 GTi to this and it felt fine to drive when I first got it. All that torque is addictive. However, within a couple of months I was bored. It was great in a straight line and on the motorway but if you wanted to make progress on nice ‘driving’ roads the low end torque and heavy engine didn’t make it feel very dynamic or sporty.
I sold it to go back to a turbo’d petrol