Agreed! I finally finished STS-8 this evening. I was having trouble with the RMS too, but with the help of the grapple guide, I figured it out - it's not that difficult when you get the hang of it!
(BTW, as you may know, I bought the sim more or less on the day it was released - it's taken me this long to complete STS-8 because I was having a load of problems working out the RMS, then just as I was getting the hang of it, I had to format my hard drive. I've also played a few other games in the meantime).
I've now completed STS-1, STS-8 and STS-26.
BTW, I'm also quite slow as I like to try to understand what I'm doing rather than just following instructions blindly, so I spend quite a bit of time reading up on the shuttle too.