foot control sucks on them, pedal is very stiff.. had mine going on 2 yrs and while it does search for gps signal when its calm it is in no way noisy, very quiet in fact, Minn Kotas are way noisier then the Motorguide.. I can bass fish with mine just as easy as a foot controlled motor just put it on slowest setting and cruise along bank casting..
as far as launching/loading getting the way way, you can buy a bracket that you mount the Xi5 on that has a pin in it you pull when loading and you lift/pull your motor back over edge of your floor out of way , load and put motor back install pen.. I have it on my pontoon and it works great unless you forget to do it. What is a pain in the but is stowing/deploying motor, they could of come up with a little better design for it.