It IS. I have two of them. One of my thoughts was the fit on the turret, and the parts do fit well. In fact, I did a little comparison to see if the stowage for the baskets would fit in the old Italeri kit's baskets, and it does not. However, a little sanding on a flat surface fixes that. The larger casting fits the rear turret of the Italeri kit as well, which would seem obvious, but you never know...
I don't have an issue with part placement - after all, I don;t want mine looking like everyone else's.
Some folks may be put off by the large pour plugs, but once again, they're a lot easier to remove than they look.