One would want to make sure that they aren't selling the ones with very fast laundromat-style cycles, with only 8 minutes of wash time.

Electronic controls are far more reliable than mechanical controls. But like everything if designed poorly they will fail prematurely. All automobiles and commercial aircraft today are fly by wire and are loaded with electronic controls. Just think anti-locking breaks, solid state ignitions, fuel injection, and automatic transmissions and we don't think about reliability. Speed Queen increased their warranty by two years with units that have electronic controls. That should say something about their faith in electronic control reliability. Even the dome membrane keypad used is typically rated for at 1 million keystrokes and the good ones are rated at over 10 million keystrokes. And I know Speed Queen has been using electronic controls for years in their Horizon series commercial washers used in laundry mats that I am sure see far more abuse than home use would subject these machines to.

Has anyone else bought this unit? Did you buy the extended warranty with it? Did you vent it to the right?

TR3, TR5 and TR7 models have a different type of motor and no mechanical transmission/gears so they operate quieter. They have no spin brake (takes a while for the drum to coast to a stop if the lid is opened during spin) which is why the lid is required to lock (for safety). The TC5 model, which apparently is your new unit, has an old-style motor (noisier) and transmission (noisier) to drive the agitator, and a spin brake which stops the drum quickly if the lid is opened so it doesn't need to lock.