haha, take care... in no time you will be so used to not having your hand blocking the view of what you draw, youll never want to go back to the cintiq!
besides, so much of this is personal, and can even change over time. i remember not being able to draw anything with the intuos for a good while. then, all my drawings i did NOT do with the intuos sucked. and nowadays, im back with paper again.
The Intuos is a fine tablet. I still got my Intuos3. I've been using the same pen nib for 3~4 years by now. Maybe you were just having bad luck with your Cintiq.
;D
besides, so much of this is personal, and can even change over time. i remember not being able to draw anything with the intuos for a good while. then, all my drawings i did NOT do with the intuos sucked. and nowadays, im back with paper again.