I've had two ZF8's; one in my V8 Jaguar F type and now the Z4 M40i - I love 'em both and I have had dozens of manual transmission vehicles (still have three). Negative comments about the ZF are almost 100% from those that are simply mad about the lack of a manual. The ZF has been almost universally lauded by testers and journalists and is a great transmission. I drove several Porsche PDK's and found the ZF to be almost identical in performance but without the low speed "clunkiness" I found in the PDK. A good read:
https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...f-eight-speed/
As far as the rest; yes the BMW faithful is mad that the Z4 has been compared favorably to the M2 - even by BMW. I find it humorous that a four seat sedan is considered by some to be a better sports car than a 2 seat roadster.... weird.
Dave