Like I said before I don't think the Sawyer has any more trouble then any other brand, I think that Sawyer far outsells all other brands so the number of complaints will be more, for example, if MSR sells a 1000 of their filter units and they get 10 complaints it doesn't sound like that many, but is Sawyer sells 100,000 units and they get a 1000 complaints that sounds like a lot more but percentage wise its the same. The MSR Guardian, or the Miniworks, and others like this, have more mechanical parts which means a larger chance for something to break then the simple non mechanical Sawyer, not saying that the MSR is junk, just saying there is more opportunity for something to break or fail; and addition the MSR Guardian is quite a bit larger which is something I don't want. But after reading reviews I discovered that the Sawyer got 4 stars and the MSR got 4 1/2 stars, some reviews the Sawyer got 4 1/2 stars, and in others it got 5 stars, while the MSR got 4 1/2 stars on some reviews and 5 stars on others, so in a nut shell the Sawyer on a couple of reviews lost only a 1/2 a star over the MSR and was tied with the MSR on all the other reviews, not bad considering the cost difference.
The Etekcity stove does not have any warning about not using a windscreen with their unit, in fact they make their own windscreen which you can buy as an option. The only reason why some stove manufactures won't recommend using a windscreen is because their seals they use between the stove and canister are poor quality and won't last long thus they don't want something blowing up, better quality stoves will always recommend windscreens for windy days. I'm sure the MSR is a great unit, but I also don't want to be using a match to light it everytime when the Etekcity, and others, have pezel starters that don't require a battery to run, I think to charge as much as MSR does without using a pezel start just seems backwards to me.
I never took measurements in either grams used or time used to tell anyone if there is a greater or lessor usage of fuel at elevation, and nor will I be doing that-it's too much work for me!
Not all fuel uses the same fuel mixture, there are some mixtures that are better for colder weather:
https://www.msrgear.com/blog/ins-outs-canister-fuels/ if you read that you will see that certain types of fuel will work better at certain temps than others, so keeping that in mind look at this site for the blends:
https://adventuresinstoving.blogspot...-for-cold.html From here you can see which fuel is better for colder climates So one could say that MSR fuel works better in the cold, yes it does, but if you don't camp in the cold then do you care? I know I don't.