The newer DSGs definitely feel more responsive. Not night/day faster shifts as the basic hardware is already fast due to how it works, but the software is erm, both better and worse, imo!
Manual selection is fine all on all versions. It's the automatic selection that's worse in the newer boxes, again, imo. Mainly because it hunts through the gears constantly trying to get into 7th as quickly as possible for economy, but the moment you get out of the 30 limit and nail the gas, it feels very slow and clumsy knocking down to the right gear for maximum acceleration. Sometimes it goes to 3rd, sometimes 2nd, sometimes 4th. It's just clumsy. And occasionally, it just flat out gets confused and shuts the throttle
Very dangerous mid overtake.
I hate the 7 speed.
The older 6 speed was more basic and therefore more predictable