Purely anecdotal: I worked at an Apple VAR when the TiBook was released, but I honestly can't remember any real controversy. They were a big hit. Quite easy to repair too.

I wasn't there for the plastic Intel MacBooks, but the biggest complaint I remember hearing about was that the black one collected fingerprints like crazy and, later on, some overheating issues. They were also a pain to repair, though not as bad as the iBooks before them.