Ugh, forum post muncher strikes again. Anyway, I was just going to suggest that if all else fails you could always go the stickless route (Hitbox layout). I tried playing with the TE stick that arrived in the mail today, and after playing stickless for almost three months I definitely wouldn’t want to use a stick again given the choice.
It’s not even the inputs on the stick itself that give me problems (my execution is still around what it had always been on a stick), it’s simply the button layout. After you start using the 24mm buttons, the 30mm and the seperation just feels monolithic in comparison. The 24mm just conform and are “right there” at all times. It’s also pretty hard to screw up moves in this game when using buttons for directions, especially when something like a shoryu can be performed very easily in three very different ways. I’m not going to claim that one is superior over the other either–unless of course you play at the arcade–but it’s definitely a different experience. Plus, it draws a lot of attention when you take it with you to game somewhere. 
When I was using my TE as a stick prior to modding it though, I ended up swapping out the JLF for a Seimitsu LS-32. It just felt much more responsive to me, since the JLF seems to take longer to engage as well as returning to neutral.
Also, I don’t know really how much of what Venom is saying about the parts Madcatz uses is true, but I do know that the Sanwa buttons that I had on my Arcade-In-a-Box stick prior to the TE being released were MUCH more responsive than those that are on the TE, even though they claimed to be the same. I also know that the 30mm that I’ve ordered through Lizardlick are also more responsive than the default 30mm on the TE sticks. Not that the default are “bad” in any way, but they just don’t feel the same at all. I wouldn’t be suprised if Madcatz actually uses different buttons in different models either. A friend of mine has the MvC2 TE stick, and the buttons on that were actually quite nice and nothing like those on the Round 1 SF4 TE sticks.
In fact, the 30mm that I had recently ordered is nothing like those on my Round 2. I think those from Lizardlick are actually made of a lighter plastic. The buttons on my Round 2 just feel “heavier” when depressing, while those from Lizardlick are very snappy. They also don’t seem to have the same engage or distance moving up and down either. Makes me wonder if those found in the arcade cabinets are the “sturdier” buttons built to take more abuse–and Madcatz are using the same. Regardless, the lighter plastic version just seem much more responsive to me.