thoughts on ratchet shifters?

For what its worth I cleaned up this old B&M shifter... Like I said it was caked with old thick white grease. I clean all that off and oiled it with some 3n1 and it works great now. It wouldn't drop into the 1st gear slot before and you have to wrestle it thru the normal motion. Now its a smooth and can be and there is next to no play side to side.

This unit was used by my father in law for 20+ years in his car and he recently replaced it with another B&M that's excatly the same. He thought it was screwed since it was so tight.