I guess it's always been easy to make fun of what you don't know anything about and of course it's always easy to blame the parts instead of the tech. I dunno, mine ran mid 13s. I didn't have the cash to go faster.
CFI's biggest obstacle was being new. EFI was a new concept. Techs had no idea the impact of a few PSI drop in fuel pressure, no appreciation for good grounds & quality wiring. By the time I sold my 82 TA I knew more about CFI than most dealer techs.
The manifold design is poor, fuel puddles in it in some circumstances. The runners are poor. The EGR passages are poor design as well. The engines then were low compression, bad heads & flat tappet cams. Modern heads & modern profile roller cams would go a long way. Plus the ECM was slow. I know a lot of guys stepped up to later model truck ecms because they were much stronger processors. I'm relatively confident I could make a reliable CFI car run 12s and probably pass smog. But I don't have the cash to blow on it now, either.
In stock form it runs fine. It is not a real performance system. It is not good for the novice to modify.
http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/