One of my first machines was a White. I found it in the basement of my first house. It was pre-sewing days for me. I was so frustrated with the machine, but my neighbor ( in the army) took it to the base one day and gave it to the seamster (??) there, and he tuned it up. Pronounced it a wonderful machine. I tried it out, decided it hated me, stuck it back in the basement and donated it when I sold that house. You're right though. I haven't had a bad White here, but for some reason, of all the machines I get, they're the hardest to adopt out.
For some reason, the Pfaffs don't bother me, but the Bernina and Elna machines just seem to fight me like crazy. It's like I have to scrap with the machine just to get the oil to where it needs to be and such. That said, the ladies with the serger and the latest Bernina are tickled pink with their machines, so I do manage to get the job done. It's possible that I just feel they're over hyped too.
I have one Elna in "time out" under the bench right now. In fairness, it IS beside a Pfaff (the one I started this thread over) also in Solitary. I just can't bring myself to disassemble the upper tensioner to change that Upper tension spring.