And it is also incredibly limited in how and or what other software packages it can communicate with.
Such as?
It interfaces with our GIS software and drainage software (we did not use SSA) fairly well, which is a lot more than than Civil 3D ever did... you do the design in 12d, export the drainage network to one of our drainage packages (we use a few and it supports them all; whereas Civil 3D only supported one through a 3rd party extension/addon), import the results from the drainage analysis, then export the CAD work to AutoCad for drafting. What else would we need to interface with? It can do a lot more although we are not using it fully yet.
It has all the standard landxml, genio, dwg/dxf, ADAC, .tin/,lin/.pts import/export functionality etc...
Civil 3d is reasonably stable IF you know what you are doing.
Well unfortunately not all of our designers are that cluey. Yes, you can work around Civil 3Ds issues although a better question is why should someone have too? If the staff can't use it effectively and we can't hire peopel who want to use it, then it is not the best product for us.