I've heard it said before that a wheel takes up too much space in the cockpit, but I find that difficult to understand. The tiller sweeps a huge arc across the cockpit that has to be kept clear when under sail (or motoring). Surely, that's bigger than the space taken up by the wheel? Or is it more a case that the wheel is in the way when not under sail? It's certainly convenient to be able to tilt the tiller up out of the way when not in use.
One particularly annoying problem with the Mac is that it's really difficult to access anything in the aft lazarette while under sail (or motoring) because the tiller is in the way. We work around that by not keeping anything there that might be needed when the tiller is in use, but that puts a pretty severe limit on how that space can be used. It's particularly annoying in the case of the aft anchor.
We're still learning how to trim the boat to reduce tiller forces, and that process will continue with the new boat. But it's not so much static tiller force that's the issue. My wife is reasonably fit and strong, for a woman in her 70s, but she spends a lot of time at the helm and, after a few hours, even quite light tiller forces become a problem for her.