never heard of any idle issues either.
as far as pulling the motor out, it is more work with the tranny attached in the sense that you have to take the shift out and unbolt the drive shaft and fight the rather awkwardly balanced load in and out of the engine bay
however, it can be a major major major major pain in the ass to get the output shaft to line up right when you pull just the motor out. Sometimes it will just slip together, other times it can take a half hour other times it will take several hours of being pissed off, going inside for lunch, then coming back out and it slips right together.