Well since I was using the 627 for plate shooting for a while, with full moon clips for fast reloading I can say that:
1. Yes the .357 clips are a pain in the fingers, although I find removing the empties worse than loading them.
2. They work extremely well for reloading in a hurry (particularly with either a LRN or a HP bullet with a fairly round nose). Point in fact, in shooting plates I could fire eight rounds, reload and get the first round off from the second batch about as fast as most people could fire six and reload and fire the seventh.
3. One big advantage over speedloaders is that the empties tend to come out much easier, and of course you don't have that "one" case that hangs up.
4. I bought the gun used, and it came with 10 clips. No idea how much use it had, although I had to SCRUB the gun repeatedly. Clips have been used extensively for three more years now, still no problems