I have five different builds around Surgeon actions, including a Surgeon built .308 that was one of the very first rifles they made. They are a very good action, no question, but IMO, they aren't the "Holy Grail" of custom tactical actions. They may have had that corner of the market for awhile, but a lot of good action builders have caught up and even surpassed them.
I won't be getting rid of any of my Surgeons in the near future, but my rifles built around Defiance/Templar actions get as much, or more use, shoot, and function just as well as any of my Surgeon actions. There are features on my new Templar VII(Deviant) action that I like better than Surgeon, such as an M16 style extracter, and angled bolt handle.
As far as Defiance actions binding and not cycling as well as a Surgeon, I call total BS on that....bolts "wear in" with use, the more you operate them, the smoother they get. Course, I do shoot my rifles a bit.....none of them spend much time in the safe.