That's strange to hear as I've had nothing but good luck with them, except that Trigger Finger thingie. I think my Delta 44 was the first thing that I bought when I decided to get serious about that whole DAW business. Midiman, as they had been known until then, were known for their solid products, and the Delta 1010 was receiving very positive reviews. I remember a fellow cakewalk newsgroup member got one and was quite happy with it - David Abraham Fenton I think his name was (I may be confusing people, that was obviously quite some time ago, circa 2000). As I was looking to upgrade my uber cheap PCI card, I figured M-Audio was the way to go.
Although it didn't have quite the same pedigree as the 1010, the 44 was amply sufficient for my needs. I never used more than 2 ins at a time, anyway. And everything else in my humble rig was M-Audio too - preamp, monitors, midi keyboard. Didn't hurt that they had an office in Quebec City where I lived - which was almost unheard of. And then came Pro Tools M-Powered, which was quite exciting at the time.
My perception of it was that the quality went south after Avid sold them, which coincided with me upgrading my gear, anyway. Are they even still in business? The only M-Audio "product" that I still use is this old key thingie:
But I take your word for it - I guess I was particularly lucky.