I'm going to agree that I like the locomotive's drivetrain to be smooth before speed control is installed. If not it's just masking a problem. I also wish more stuff had backdriveable gears as well. In any case, as far as large, scale, steam locomotives go I prefer the ones powered by Pittman motors. They seem to run the smoothest with low current draw. Would revised gear ratios be nice? Sure. But I doubt MTH or Lionel are going to invest the $$$ necessary to do so, when only a few of us crazies complain. In my opinion I would rather pay for a quality motor in an expensive scale steam locomotive then gimmicky stuff like whistle steam, but it appears the market thinks otherwise.
Back on topic a bit but I'd be interested to see what the "Pittman knockoff" MTH is using currently looks like. Is it able to be taken apart like a Pittman?
