Fyi - mentioned it in another response, but Caffi filter bags for French Press eliminate all the cons you listed there. Worth a try if you have a French Press you want to try to revive. You need to grind quite a bit finer than you normally would and maybe push extraction closer to 5min. Personally though, I feel like the flavor comes out a bit flat. Not to rag too heavily on FP, but I feel like a big part of the FP taste is oil and fines and when you cut those out with a filter it seems you are left with fairly mediocre coffee. That being said, maybe I need to work on technique because with the caffi filter the brew process becomes very similar to an immersion brewer much like the clever dripper.