With Pacers, one reason might be *because* they are so low-tech - they are fairly simple trains mechanically, so there's a lot less to go wrong (compared to a modern unit with lots of additional features but sometimes additional features just means additional things to go wrong).
So there seems to be fewer reasons for a Pacer to be stuck in the depot, partly *because* they are such basic trains - and there's nothing wrong with a basic train - there's a need for simple units that can do the unglamorous short distance services, the "stoppers", the feeder trains - I wouldn't want to sit on one all the way from Sheffield to Manchester/ Leeds (which are services that Pacers ran for many years) but I'd be fine with them on a journey to somewhere like Rotherham.
In my opinion when Voyagers aren't crowded (which admittedly isn't often) they are some of the most pleasant trains in the country to travel on. Certainly take one over an 80x. Besides, all trains seem awful when they're crowded.
My opinion too.
Most people's problems with Voyagers are about the lack of seats (often the kind of people who like to believe that the majority of Cross Country services were full rake HSTs or trains of equivalent length and don't remember the 158s or the 47s hauling shorter rakes than that, but there we go...).
Voyagers are very reliable, they are designed to do a specific thing (fast acceleration, 125mph top speed) and they do that very well - it's just that there aren't enough coaches (and not enough seats in the coaches that they do have).
I think that if they had more carriages they'd be a lot more appreciated (e.g. the bogs on other trains smell a bit, but other trains have more seats so I don't tend to spend an hour breathing "fumes" whilst stood outside the toilets - you tend to notice these things when crowded onto a Voyager, as I used to be daily when commuting).
There was always going to be the problem with Voyagers that *anything* replacing loco hauled trains on Cross Country services was going to be a bit unpopular in the Enthusiast community (especially with simple clockface service patterns, instead of the esoteric combinations of far flung destinations that happened in BR days), but I think they are
okay trains, as long as I can get a seat on one!