It does feel a bit like the throttle needs a deliberate stab, whereas old-style throttles just need a gentle blip to get the revs to where you want them.

I miss the cables.

Yeah downshifting to 2nd just doesn't feel good. In fact I find upshifting to 2nd hard to get down smoothly, at least for me. Every other gear upshifts and downshifts like butter except 2nd.

In most cars, you have to blip the throttle a little more than in other gears, usually because of how the gearing is. While this exact scenario may not apply to the FR-S/BRZ, some cars are geared to hit a certain speed right at the top of a certain gear, to help with its performance specs (as requiring an additional shift to hit some number will slow down its acceleration time), even though it may not always be the optimal gearing. So when downshifting into a gear like that, it's geared a little taller than the other gears, so you have to take that into account.