Not necessarily Ian as the financial requirements for some visas must be proven upon annual renewal which is not the case for TE. Once the TE membership fee is paid, you are all set.
I have friends who are on the retirement or marriage visas and they have found changing financial requirements at the time of renewal to be burdensome. But as the name suggests, it is an Elite visa and not designed for everyone ;-)
An overstay is an overstay and should always be avoided out of respect for the visa. Yes, most of us staying here long-term have overstayed at one point in time, but any immigration officer has the power to take a dim view of that overstay and make entering the Kingdom more challenging ;-)
Your point is well taken Tod, you allowed us to discuss TE in enough detail and that should be sufficient. Sorry to the O/P for going off-topic for so long....as you correctly said, there will always be the nay-sayers for whatever reasons.