What are you driving now? At the end of the day it is still an economy car and there will be the occasional small quirks about the car that you just have to deal with. I personally still think the crickets are way overblown with these cars. When I did notice it, it was not horrible and usually the radio would cover them completely
As for the torque dip, you have options. You can learn to drive around it. You can mod your car and get a tune to smooth it out. These cars are made to rev. I think the people who complain the most about the torque curve are the ones who probably need to learn how to downshift more...