I've got a telescoping pole for some basic freshwater stuff and it actually works really well for me. I can see the drawbacks but I'm such a casual fisher that the benefits and storage space of the rod outweigh any issues.

I've been using it pretty often, 1-2x a week for a few hours to an entire day at a time, switching out setups/hooks, and catching fish (or trees....). I've had one serious line issue and it happened earlier today. Other than that it's behaved perfectly, and I have absolutely no complaints.

Rod I have; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OWNPA6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1