that's a random rant that may have been true for 1.5, but it definitely isn't for 1.6.x. the new shiva developer zone is truly amazing, several admins (developers) answer your questions in the forum, over 30 video tutorials should give you more than you need (plus many written ones) and the documentation has colored sysntax, explains every function, its variables etc.
purchasing a license offers you the possibility to write emails to the devs directly and get help.
you have a point with the french forum. the editor is awesome if you ask me, quite intuitive, good looking, comes with customizable design and layout, blabla it's only awkward if you are not used to it, but so is every, and i mean every, 3d application. of course it has a learning curve, did you expect to write your games in one afternoon, including learing the tool, its several modules, a whole scripting language etc? if you don't want to get your hands dirty, go and make love with fpsCreator.