I notice that my zwave devices that are only battery are never a problem when they are not working. ie dead batteries etc.. So that brings up the issue why ghosts are so much of a problem. I assume it is only ac powered devices that are a problem becuase the hub is trying to reach them and tying up the mesh.. Is this becuase they are repeaters.. so what would happen if ac devices were NOT repeaters.. would ghosts then not be an issue at all much like the battery powered devices.. If so why is there no option to disable repeating on devices?
That is my understanding as well, but likely because people who are having problems might not be able to distinguish, you'll most often hear the broader advice to avoid them in general.
This is just how Z-Wave works (except LR). It is not under control of the hub/controller. The only entity that can answer this question is Silicon Labs.
This also didn't seem to be as big of an issue until the 700 series. Whether that's because bugs on SiLabs' early 700-series firmware made them easier to create (compounded by other problems at the time as well) or because something else is actually going on, I don't know...
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When I joined the party, to my (initial) dismay. 
Thank goodness things settled down overall, at least that's been my experience.
Battery powered Z-Wave FLIRS devices can bring your mesh to its knees, but standard sleepy battery Z-Wave devices seem to drop on and off mesh w/out causing any issues, likely because no one is trying to route through them so when they disappear the other devices don't care. If you had an automation using them that would hang up badly for some reason that could cause other issues.
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I think standard battery z-wave devices can bring a mesh to its knees as well. Remember "Slow World"? That was due to a faulty driver though, as I recall, and not the EcoLink contact sensor, per se.
I wonder how LR falls into the ghost/reliability mix? No mesh, so less effects there. I bet a misbehaving device could still bring z-wave down, but really have no idea. Hopefully more robust, generally.
I now have 9 unremoveable LR Ghosts, but they don't seem to have an effect, likely because of the aforementioned lack of mesh.
Yeah, we've seen there are ways for a driver or app to cause problems if they start spamming the hub if there is a missing device (battery or mains powered).
Main LR benefit IMHO is that mains powered LR devices should not cause Z-Wave mesh problems by coming or going, since LR devices don't route for other devices (or vice-versa). So devices dying or getting unplugged, or moving stuff around should not have the potential to muck things up like it can w/Z-Wave mesh devices.
Ya well to me the fact that 1. The one device i tried had worse range than zigbee and 2 the fact that with the current unsolved.join issue that it can get hosed requiring reset of your hub makes lt/it a non starter for me!
Yup - there are definitely some "LR startup" blips that are making things tough for some people (luckily didn't affect me). New tech not surprisingly having issues, how many times have we seen that before (C-7 release?).
But I wouldn't let an experience w/one device affect your entire view of LR devices...my experience w/my Zooz LR contact on my back gate (140' away and working perfectly for weeks now) has been excellent. No other contact sensor I've tried has been able to manage anywhere near that kind of distance in a spot like that where I don't have a way to sprinkle in repeaters (no mains power out there).
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I hadn't heard of that.
