FWIW
I renewed a local requirement of a 90 day recency on the R44 today after having flown and autorotated R22, B47G and EC120 for the previous three months. It included auotorotations to the hover.
Yep, the R44 is my favourite of the four. Shallower angle, benign rotor speed control in turning descent, plenty of rotor energy left at the end of the flare and all at a pace that gave spare time for thinking.
Maybe Frank is right in saying that the R44 would make a great ab initio training machine.
Now, if we can get the cost per hour down...