Actually, for me, until this last winter, my system worked extremely well and gave me less opening troubles than many here. The initial opening vacuuming of 4x in a row--well, my robot handles that!
Rarely, over the winter, have I ever had to siphon water out of the pool, and that didn't require a pump, just a length of hose.

But remember: I live in North Central NJ where we have real winters and sometimes lots of snow. The water gets cold enough to inhibit algae growth and stays that way from the beginning of October to mid-April. The 2013/14 winter was not the coldest nor snowiest winter we've had, but the snow/melt/freeze/snow cycles made it the toughest in many, many years. The repairs to the pool were a pain in the neck, but the clean up of the WATER was no big deal.

Therefore, my decision process about what type of cover to use is based on my local weather conditions, the amount of detritus I expect in my pool (no trees hang over it), and personal preference. IOW, it works for me, but that doesn't make it universal, by any means.