I love mine - I got it on the water the day before our Teal season opened, and I've had it on the water all but 4 days of this Teal season, going to miss tomorrow, but will finish out the season on Sunday...
My hunt deck is strictly floatation, no extra storage, but does make a great step for getting into the boat (or a seat at the ramp for putting on/ taking off waders
). I personally don't see why people want a hunt deck for storage, the whole idea of the hunt deck, and pods, is to add flotation to the aft end to counteract the weight placed on the aft end...What I've found, on my 1452 with the 25hp Kohler LT, it works best with no more than 2 people, blind, gear, and - of course - the dog. My (automotive) battery, fuel, and the aft seat storage keep the majority of the weight to the aft end and the boat planes wonderful with the previously mentioned load.
When you add more people (although not really wanting to, I've had up to 4 adults), at traveling speeds (which I can't get planed out with that kind of load), you have to situate them further back in the boat, or the bow wants to run too low, plowing the water - get it in the skinny water at slow speed and you move them forward to level the boat back out.
I really wish now that I had had the hunt deck on all my previous hulls that I ran a LT on, instead of the pods I had put on them...