I've always had pretty great results with plastic foundation. There's a caveat, in that some beeks (as noted above) have reported some odd problems with it, or that their bees take longer to draw it out; but I've never had that trouble and when I restart next spring I plan on using all plastic foundation. Aside from the ease of cleaning, extracting, and spotting eggs, I also find plastic foundation is great when it's time to cull old combs; just use your hive tool to scrape the comb off and you can immediately return the frame to a hive to be drawn out again without needing to buy new foundation. In this way, it's easy to imagine some plastic foundation lasting as long or even longer than some of one's wooden hive furniture.
I would, however, suggest that all new beekeepers should be encouraged to give wax foundation a try - for one thing, if you decide on all-plastic it should be an informed decision, not a "so-and-so said always use plastic" kind of decision. For another, you'll need to know how to install thin surplus when/if you decide to make cut-comb; and finally, I think beekeepers in general should make an effort to have at least some working knowledge of every corner of our craft. A beekeeper who looks at a spur embedder and says "what's this?" would make me a sad. :(
The rite-cell stuff is great; I noticed ML is selling all-plastic rite-cell frames, and I'm strongly considering that for my honey supers. I do hope they begin making such frames in black, because I much prefer the black foundation for brood chambers.