I also fly geared Lycomings and as long as you operate them properly they will be reliable. The problem and bad rap arose because people were flying them like they would a direct drive engine. This will eat the gearbox up. You have to have positive drive at all times and let the props push the air and not the other way around.
That's why sometimes geared aircraft can be hard to slow down. You can't just chop the throttle like in normal aircraft - you have to run powered approaches. I only chop in the flare. Once you get used to that, they're easy to run.