Purchased mine from Extreme Addiction, cost me $120+, absolutely love it, I think it's a fair price for what you get. I'm a huge tanto fan, I use this particular Emerson along with a CS Voyager and few more pointy CRKTs all the time, I cut primarily boxes and plastic ties, some wood, never food.
I found tantos to be great utility blades, with that said, I agree that the chisel grind will lead sideways, but from tactical standpoint, this complicates tremendously the wound in slash, and they are great stabbers, even the short blade, so this-one is a potent model.
Boxy handle never bothered me, especially if you are wearing gloves, it stays solid in your hand, the grip is outstanding.
For me, the wave is the fastest and most suitable for deployment of the blade system, no wrist flipping, no excessive movements of the opening arm/hand, positive feedback for the lock, very quick repositioning of the hand for good grip.
My knife was banged a lot, probably already few thousands openings, did not see any problems with the lockup, very solid. The only noticeable thing is a slight "stickiness" when you unlock the blade, I can live with it, I don't care how I'll close the blade, usually one have enough time for this if we're talking about SD.
Did not noticed any loosening of the pivot screw so far, no side or any other play of the blade, but I didn't really put any hard pressure sideways, except cutting some fairly soft wood in door frames and so on...
Very happy with the steel, this particular-one holds the edge just fine, sharpens nicely, blade comes back to life fairly easy and quick, I agree - the knife came stupidly sharp from the factory.
I went online to register it and receive outstanding CS from Emerson's people I communicated with trough the web-site, very happy with them.
Yes, they are some negative opinions about Emersons in general, I could be just lucky with my knife, but I like it a lot and will buy again when come across another model that I like.
I think you (OP ) should buy one, try it and if you don't like it, you'll easily find someone here who will pay money for it...
An old picture when it was almost new:
Nothing cuts as tanto's secondary point, and yes, I'm holding it slightly sideways, I'm used to it, doesn't bother me, besides, I don't really need absolutely straight line when I cut boxes...