I didn't want to resurrect a zombie thread, so I'll just start a new one. Got to run a 160M yesterday, and had not sat in a blade in 9 years. All I can say is "mind blown." Spent about 5 minutes figuring out what was necessary for blade movements, and then stuck the blade in the dirt. I could not believe how natural it was. I've only spent about 500 hours on a blade in general, but this truly surprised me. If anyone is wondering, the controls were set to "coarse".
I ran a M last winter for the first time that we rented while our 140G was down. It took me a couple hours to get comfortable on it, the second day I felt like I had run it for years. It was very comfortable and much less fatiguing at the end of the day. The only thing I didn't like was roading it, had to pay attention to barely moving the joystick. I really wouldn't want one around that had a lot of hours though, I will stick with the G for that.
Only ever ran an old JD grader a couple hours but can relate to the difference of the steering from my experience with front end loaders. Never really an operator just a mechanic who had to test run machines or move them for servicing. I recall when company got the new 988H with stick steering it felt very strange sitting in seat with no wheel in front of me. Then when it came to moving it I most have looked like a drunk snake trying to go it a straight line just to get it in the shop for service. But after a bit of time I actually got good enough I could fill in to load haul truck when operator was running late in morning!