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I bought the car specifically because it came with a manual, so i'm obviously biased, that said, I don't think it's the greatest manual to ever come on a car, though it's also far from the worst.
The shift quality will be familiar if you've driven many BMW manuals, reasonably accurate, longish throws and a very 'cushy' feeling, without much harshness. Despite the cushiness, there is still some feedback, but overall it feels pretty refined for what i'm used to in a sports car. Not much effort is needed to slot between gears.
The transmission is actually VERY nice for daily driving IMHO and it's by far the easiest to drive MT i've ever experienced, mostly due to the electronic assistance. As you mentioned, there is a rev match feature that can't be turned off without turning TCS off all the way. There is also a hill hold feature and an anti-stall feature. You don't need to give it any gas when getting away from a stop, just slowly let out the clutch and the car will do it for you.
That said, the transmission doesn't ever swing all the way into "boring" territory for me. As I mentioned, there's still a fair amount of feel through the shifter and the engine doesn't hang revs too excessively. In addition, the car will still let you rev match even with the auto rev match on. I like to double clutch my downshifts with a blip in neutral and the car will absolutely, faithfully respond to my throttle blip. However, if i don't give it enough of a blip, the engine will blip a little extra for a perfect rev match when i actually slot it into gear. If I do get it perfect on the other hand, I can't tell the car is doing anything to help me (and indeed it may not be.)
Cruising on the highway in 6th gear hasn't been a problem for me, last week I drove from seattle to portland and then back to seattle, which is at least 500 miles. The car isn't going to get great mileage no matter what, but I didn't feel like there was excessive vibration or noise from the engine while cruising at 70-80 mph. I'm sure a DCT would've gotten slightly better mileage though and probably been just a touch more relaxed, but again, I don't think this is a problem with the 6mt.
So, if you're expecting a Miata transmission that lives to delight and entertain, this probably isn't it. If on the other hand, you're looking for a transmission that's reasonably fun, offers all the control of a traditional manual and is as easy to live with as a 3-pedal manual setup can be, I think the 6mt won't disappoint.
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