I own an original Lightning in 44-40. It's not pretty. No finish left, and parts of the metal look like it's had the pox. Unreliable?
Information posted on the internet by folks who have no direct experience with the design may be unreliable, the design is not.
Maybe mine is an exception of some kind. Or, possibly, I took the time to learn how it functions, disassemble and clean it, and learned how to work it properly. In any case, mine is utterly reliable and scary accurate. I have no experience with copies or replicas, so I will not venture a judgement on them. I have direct experience with only one "copy", an Armi Sport 92 that I bought because it was incredibly beautiful. It was missing parts out of the box ( one ctg guide screw and the lifter stop pin) but I put it right and took it out to test fire it. Shot so far to the left I could not adjust the sights to compensate. The first and last "copy" of anything that i own.
Sold it. So here's the takeaway: A junked up soiled dove from the day beats a "replica", because whatever has happened to it over the years, you can bet that it was right when it left the factory,and 99 times out of 100, it can be put right again. My humble opinion anyway.