I hand-sew everything and about 75% of my stash is batiks. I adore them. Some are more difficult to get a needle through, with piecing more than with quilting, but it's a small minority and in some cases I know which manufacturers will be hard work. For instance, the very beautiful and incredibly useful Gradation range by Sew Batik - oddly enough, some of their other fabrics are softer and easier to needle. I wouldn't want to use those fabrics all the time, but I will happily use them mixed in with other fabrics for the odd project.
Definitely prewash, as with all fabrics that won't be damaged by washing (yes, metallics, I'm looking at you). With all but the lightest fabrics, I presoak them in cold water for a bit, then sling them in the washing machine in a mesh bag.
As for the colours being hard to work with, the jewel tones might be more eye-catching, and I admit that overall batiks do tend to be purer, more saturated colours, but there are plenty of more sombre batiks out there. I won twenty half-metres of fabric when I won the UK Hoffman Challenge, and to my disappointment, the only batiks in the pile were a greyish beige. Ah well, I'm sure they'll be useful in a landscape quilt or something.