The Benelli Comfort Tech system - does reduce recoil in my opinion. I have 2 Benelli's - both the Super Sport - and one is a 12ga and one a 20ga. Even one of my 13 yr old granddaughters can shoot the Benelli 20ga without beating her up / she has almost no upper body strength / and is really wiry at 5'9" and 100 lbs.
I have 1100's and 11-87's - and they're soft shooting guns / but the Benelli's are about the same. The Benelli is way cleaner shooting than any of my gas guns. The Benelli's are also easier to maintain / trigger group pops out very easily / top of receiver pops off - so getting at trigger group in the field is real easy as well. Easy 10 min to completely strip a Benelli / trigger, bolt, etc - clean it - put it back into battery and keep going ...
I'm not saying the gas guns are bad guns / I just prefer the Benelli. The other problem I have on gas guns / is some of the gas bleed off gets behind my glasses - and its distracting to me... I've kept the Benelli's as my only 2 semi-autos / passed the 1100's, 11-87's, an auto 5 and a Beretta 390 down to some of the nephews and kids in the family.