My mother in law has the mid line with the front controls. It doesn't feel flimsy at all to me, though I do note that the panel will flex a bit when pulling it. My previous gen was the same though and never had an issue. Maybe it's designed to flex a bit, like the bumper of a car. I'm surprised at how much more solid my Whirlpool feels being a brand new machine. My door doesn't flex a bit when opened or closed, and feels heavier than her Maytag but who knows whether that's slight variances in the spring and cable tension or something.
They seem very happy with it. The thing I'm trying to break them of is rinsing. She's gotten better though, because she called me a few weeks ago to tell me she put a baking dish in the top rack with baked on cheese, and it came out spotlessly. I was like "Yeah? Lol, didn't I tell you it would?"
As far as loading it's identical to the Maytag I had because the racks haven't changed a bit. The only things I'm not a fan of are the stainless steel wash arms. They look gawdy to me; not sure what the narrow in the middle-wide at the ends thing is about. When you see the underside, the actual passage for water is as thin as the Whirlpool low-profile arms, so the rest is molded flat metal. All in all though, they're happy with it. Not an item has emerged unclean and it's extremely quiet, only a smidge louder than my WP, but both are too quiet to hear over a low-volume TV.