Tolerable IS good enough for a perfectionist like me, my standards are relatively high. I can see though why most people would think I'm crazy for thinking such old struts still handle fine, but they do. Don't get me wrong, if I were going to keep the car 5 more years I would have already replaced them, but at the rate it's rusting we'll keep it one more year, two years tops. I bought one of the struts on eBay a few years ago, I'm still waiting for the handling to get bad enough that I buy the other one. I actually find the < 100k old rear struts to be more lacking in damping, they are a little mushy. I should have used GR2's in the rear in hindsight, they are supposed to be a little stiffer. I really don't buy the safety argument, as SO many cars and SUVs come from the factory with suspensions far softer than this one is now. This car will still run circles around my Jeep in almost any situation. I'm much more nervous about my wife driving the Jeep, and it has nearly new shocks all the way around.
It simply boils down to all shocks/struts are not created equal, there is no one-size-fits-all answer, YMMV.