thoughts on ratchet shifters?

Years ago I ran a B&M Quick Click ratchet shifter in a bracket car. Well, it cost me a race when it fell apart shifting from 1st to 2nd in the burnout box. The little ratcheting pawls that engage the teeth of the shifting mechanism would not engage in one direction. Turns out the springs that worked the pawls were cheap and broke. Not the thing you want to happen when pulling to the start line. After that I went with a B&M gate shifter. Not quite as 'ugly' or bulky as a Winters or Cheetah, and the B&M one had a feature where you could unbolt the gate and swap it for a reverse valve body gate or a forward pattern gate, unlike the Hurst quarter stick - a similar type of shifter. I still have that shifter after nearly 30 years and it works just fine.