I just think the paranoia over SF is overblown.
I used to agree with you, until I actually installed it. X3 was the game that made me overcome my distrust of it, and I'm quite sorry it did (despite being a fun game that I won't be playing anymore). As expected, SF put my dvdrw back into PIO mode, which caused numerous burning problems, bad dvds (and hence wasted money), and completely ruined dvd playback. So for me, at least, the 'paranoia' was justified. Everyone else's mileage may vary.