I have found regular seeds to be more stable & true & fem seeds can be very hit & miss at least with regs you have a 50/50 chance of it being a female & usually a good one at that. With female you have a higher rate of getting a female but the genetics can be a bit off.. that's why many people do not like them they are not as stable as regular seeds & from what I have found this is true.
As an example: Nirvana Seeds - Very hit & miss, usually unstable genes, but you can get very lucky.
Sensi Seeds - Very good genetics but very pricey, you will find it hard to get a freak from the 'high end' seed companies like Sensi & White Label seeds
This is only from my personal experience so people will prob have their own opinions on the above seed companies.
I can agree with what you are saying. I generally go with 1-2 fem and 1-2 regulars each batch. I use fems to guarantee a spot in the box and regulars to look for those "wow" phenotypes. But at the same time I think the mother plant genetics and breeders play a significant roll in what is really good and not.
I have grown several DNA/Reserva feminized strains multiple times. The genetics have been pretty stable with very high quality product.
I have grown several strains from Dinafem. What I tend to say about them is, "they give a fair representation of the strain" It isnt going to be the talk of your garden but you will get very solid plants.
I have grown several strains from Female seeds. The C99 hybrid I put into jars 2 days ago seems to be fantastic. I havent messed with it really, waiting to give it plenty of cure time before I really sample it, but I expect it to be incredible. When I transfered my buds from the brown grocery sack into the jars, I had some shake left over at the bottom. Took about 3-4 one hits off of it and was getting a little bit trippy vision out of the corners of my eyes along with a very heads-on buzz.
I have a BF Tangerine Dream feminized in veg right now, first BF feminized I have grown, we will see how it is.
I have a Royal Queen seeds feminized Blue Mistic in flowering right now, showing female. Had a deep purple growing right along side it, ended up being male, shredded and disposed.
As far as "bad" well based on my experiences, I havent gotten to the bad breeders yet. Alot of the female hermie threads I read end up being seeds from Greenhouse. I cant say since I havent grown any of theirs, but I can say I wont bother growing any of theirs.