"...Wasn't the "jack test" just a standard thing you'd do when buying a used Beetle?..."
Maybe. But, like Troy, I remember reading defensive references to it in lots of online Speedster ads:
"Unlike those pan-based death traps our competitors are offering, here at Sporty Motors, our cars have reinforced frames and are rock solid."
They never mentioned just where those competitors' cars came from, but they couldn't say that on the internet if it weren't true, right?
This was mostly when I first started looking for a Speedster, around six years ago. Today, not so much. I think the competitor's cars also suffered from the heartbreak of psoriasis.
"...The fetish for a 5 (or more) speed is very strong for some reason..."
It's funny how the wide gaps in standard VW gearing bug the crap out of some people, but not others. I was one of the ones who noticed it the first time I drove a Speedster. Of course, my first engine made about 12 hp, so maybe that's why I noticed so much. The more torque you've got, the less it matters. I'd guess with a modern, computer-controlled Subie motor, four speeds would suffice.
Me, I just don't like the sound of a VW Type 1 motor revving over 4000 rpm for very long. It's fun for a while, but sometimes I just want to poodle through the neighborhood or pull away from a stoplight without raising a fuss.
With a VW type 1 motor, the most common five-speed conversion gearing keeps the same first, second, and top gears as the four-speed. The extra gear gets squeezed between third and fourth, and third gets lowered a bit, too. So the 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5 shifts are all much tighter than 2-3 and 3-4 were on the four-speed.
You don't have to rev nearly as high before shifting when running up through the gears. If you do take it to 4000 (or more) though, the car jumps out way better than with the wide-spaced ratios. And climbing a hill on the freeway, if some guy cuts in front of you, you're not afraid to downshift. You've now got a lower gear that won't send the tach needle off the end of the scale.