I have shared a beer with one or two Cirrus company test pilots at conferences - they were military trained, so did know what they were doing. Their general view on the aeroplane was that it was neither better nor worse than any other similar performance aeroplane in terms of complexity, workload, or handling.
Which suggests that it has something to do with the pilot profile. Remember the old Bonanza that used to be called the "Doctor and Lawyer killer" - now that did have issues, but was still basically safe operated within the envelope - I do wonder if there's some similarities there.
I still want to do the course, even if I never fly a Cirrus again - simply from professional interest.
G