That is definitely always a problem in this hobby. People don't keep trying new products once they find one that works, they stick with it and tell everyone how amazing it is.
I used a Rio pump on mine, with the plastic prefilter to the rio, but no sponge in the whole system, same with the ones at the shop. I never had problems with any of them. I have used and seen a few other skimmers used, including a Bubble King, ASMs, Remoras, Urchins, Seaclone, Coralife Super Skimmer, and a few others. I actually wasn't too impressed with the Bubble King (at least not for the price), but I think that had to do with tweaking it right which I wasn't going to mess with and apparently the other guys couldn't get just right. I actually got pretty good skimmate from the Seaclone, more than you would think based on how bad most people talk about it. The AquaC has a lot of control so it is easy to tweak.