Very true. SO has the magnificnt Merkava.
I have reservations about the Strykers, but don't think we have enough data yet - like you I've heard good and bad. I suspect they'll prove themselves valuable, just not as the cure-all magic fit-for-all-purposes vehicle some people astoundingly thought they would be. War, like any other human activity, requires a selection of different tools for different purposes. The Stryker is likely to be one of them.
Having been to Iraq with a Stryker Brigade I won’t get into OPSEC details, but it holds up better than the up-armored HMMMVs and even better than Bradleys. So it is survivable. The insurgents regretably deserve some credit here.
Remember that Stryker is/was officially known as an “interim” vehicle. The FCS family was supposed to follow-on, but that program’s in the grave (for now).
We’ve erroneously overe-extended both the mission and the platform of the HMMWV. We used them as pickup trucks in the mid-1980s and now they’re being used in roles never intended or even wildly imagined. We (The Army) should have had a better post-Cold War option in the works.
I’m a Bradley fan (armor, firepower and TRACKS), as a large vehicle in a confined area needs PIVOT STEER. However, the Stryker has been fairly successful and is our best technology demonstrator for enhanced combat control systems.