There is always two ways of seeing anything: in a negative light or in a positive light.  The best avenue is to weigh them in a balance: put the negative views in one pan of the balance and the positive views in the other pan and to see which out weighs the other.  Some responses to your post:

"This is a common chorus of detractors of MLM. Those are my lines also when I think about other MLM programs/business. Simply because there is almost only one way to succeed in those MLM business and if you can not follow it you are doomed to fail. So your tendency is to sugar coat the process/products to the point of lying and you are pushing hard to friends that sometimes ruin your relationship. You don't have much choice because you already spent large amount of money for your starter's kit.
The BIG difference with SFI is its flexibility and wide range of alternatives to succeed. You may choose not to spend your own money, you may choose be a seller of your own product, you may choose to sell other's products, you may choose to recruit yourself, or you may choose to let SFI to recruit for you and other people recruit for you. You may choose to work hard or may choose to let your money work for you, you may choose to work as team and may you choose to work by yourself. You may choose to slow down, and may choose to go as fast as you can. You may choose PriceBender as your route to success you can even choose to compose songs hehehe. I hope you are getting what I mean. There is a BIG freedom in doing MLM in SFI and enjoyment too."