Any showstopper issues with 955? Safe to buy? Big disappointments after the first months?

Apple, Google and some big techs are definitely much more polished when it comes to the fine details.

I have both watches and nothing to complain. I have the 955 since his launch and now it works really well,the most annoying bugs,the map navigation,the line across the screen and some minor bugs, they fixed. The bug in the lactate threshold not update on Garmin connect and in the watch is across all line up,255 ,955, Fenix 7,epix 2 etc. And the algorithm from HRV is a bit broken. However,that is not important to me, because my lactate threshold is 178 BPM and 04:33 km pace for several months. During my training block for marathon doesn't changed, however my Critical power on stryd,and my threshold pace calculated on Vdot from Jack Daniels was about 04:15 the threshold pace. I don't know how people though is a reliable source from Garmin and give so much value to that. For me both are reliable on what i need, distance and pace,both have great user in terms of software,on Garmin Fenix 7 is more polished, understandable because is their premium line up,so its with you. If you don't care about the plastic look of the watch on your daily use and wearing him 24/7 you save some money and get a big part of the experience of the Garmin Fenix 7. 

Hello,
currently, about 6 months after its launch, the 955 still has several problems. Of course if you don't use those functions, since it has many functions, you will not notice them or they will not be a problem for you. If for you the fact that track back navigation doesn't work again and that the clock freezes when using it or that the map cannot be used with a double tap to zoom or other "little things" which are important to me when I'm out alone in the mountains in places I don't know, well, if you don't need these things or they aren't important... yes the watch works well for other things.
The problem is that Garmin sells the device saying it works for these things too. So no Garmin, you are not entirely correct.

yes, however one of the latest bugs they've introduced is appalling battery life. everyone uses the battery. maybe it won't bother some people having to recharge once a week without recording any activities (ie every few days with normal use), despite being supposed to get 15 days but when you go to sleep with it showing as having 3 days battery left and then wake up for a busy day with it nearly dead you're left high and dry.

oh, and the line across the screen issue thats supposed to be fixed... i've seen it since getting the update thats supposed to fix it

Fenix 7 does NOT have a metal case. Apple Watch and Garmin Marq has metal cases, but Fenix 7 has same kind of case as Forerunner 955, just with metal bezel + backplate. I have an Epix myself and I does not consider it a metal-watch. In fact I have put a thirdparty Fenix 7 metal bezel on my 955, which is not half bad.

That said Epix is my current daily driver because of winter and darkness, where amoled display has an advantage. The software on Epix/Fenix is also more mature/refined, so I hope by summer time when MIP display is preferable, the 955 has caught up. I don't know why garmin don't just use the same firmware and cut features, but at least they are heading in the right direction. Updates for 955 are just to few and to slow. Way to slow.Staging rollout at 5% for a "public" beta after 4days! Why not just make it a manual Alpha and letting people know they are doing it at their own risk, if they are so worried people are getting it on their device. E.g. there is a public Alpha for Epix I have not installed (yet), despite being a beta tester, since I want somewhat reliability for my daily driver and see what feedback other people gives first.

I've been using 955 non solar for the past 6 months.

I would say everything is working great. Major bugs have been fixed.

Only complaint is the battery life which is significantly different than advertise.

It is a lot of small touches and extra options. Some has already come to 955. E.g. cover the screen with your palm brings you to the watch face, other are comming, e.g. scrolling graphs to show more than 4 hours (according to changelog for public beta,  but not been able to get it). On epix you can long press on stuff to get context menu, e.g. long press on a widget glance is the same a holding the up button. Long press on the map, will bring up menu to do something with that location. If you choose go in the Map activity on Epix/Fenix it will ask what activity you will use to navigate to that location. On Fenix/Epix, you can delete alarms/notifications etc. by swiping. Epix/fenix have haptic feedback, when you use touch. 955 has power saving, but Fenix/Epix has power profiles. You can search for new software directly from the watch on Fenix/Epix, while on 955 you must hope a sync will do that. the same functions just goes a bit further and deeper on Fenix/Epix. 7s or 955 is hard decison and one I myself wonder about. Maybe a 7s standard for my small wrist would have been a the better buy at the expense of dual-band gnss.

Garmin product line is a disappointing mess at this point. 

FR955 standard is the best hardware Garmin offers. Best MIP screen contrast and backlight, lighter weight and more comfortable compared to the Fenix 7. Also all models have dual band + 32gb.

The Fenix has better software and more sport profiles. But is too heavy and you have to choose between give up dual band or live with a terrible reflective solar screen (and pay more for it).

Add the tons of bugs taking months to fix.

Considering all this I can say if you are happy with an older model and are not an enthusiast willing to do beta bug test for Garmin, just wait for the next gen. 

Or at least wait until they fix more bugs and improve the 955 software to be more on pair with F7/epix line.

thanks for the insights! Unfortunately my 945 died a few days ago (water damage) so i need to decide right away. 

My tendency is the 955 and then pray for bugfixes…