Wannabe, I got the same info you did and passed, as did many others. I don't have any issue with the stage 1 exams, just grateful for the opportunity to sit them. As for the motivation paper, multi-choice it may be but you still need to understand the content to answer the questions and as the above poster stated it's something you'll need to understand anyway so not a waste of time as far as I was concerned.
You could also argue that a good ATC candidate is able to adapt to unforseen events and just get on with it. "I wasn't expecting AFR215 in my airway at this time, making changes and ensuring safe passage was a total waste of my time".