I've seen 1911's that were rock solid reliable, but some that out-of-the-box needed gunsmithing.... But fine once extractor hand fitted, polished feed ramp/throat/slide-where-rim-rubs-by-firing-pin and everything works great.

Do issues "pop up" out of no where with 1911s then later on or are they are good to go aside from recoil spring every whatever k rounds?

I just handled a 1911 for the first time, got to dry fire it and am shocked by the amazing ergo's and trigger XD

For the most part once you have them running 100% they stay that way. You need to keep up on your spring changes and general lube and cleaning. I like to replace the recoil springs around every 3000 rounds or so and the firingpin spring about every 2 recoil spring changes. The only thing that may go wring down the road generally is that extractor will eventually loose tension and need to be adjusted or replaced. Which is not a big deal at all to do.. I have a couple that have around 30k or so on them and they have had nothing replaced since I first got them besides all the springs..

Absolutely this; if you keep up on your maintenance and lubrication 1911s will remain reliable as clockwork.

Personally, I prefer external extractors, heresy, I know.

This assumes you started with quality parts. The cheap stuff will wear out with heavy use.

Cool that's what I figured, we are talking about steel parts after all (and relatively fewer number of parts compared to other designs)

The 1911 ergos, grip, safety and trigger just completely amazed me. The trigger is even better than a CZ trigger (and that's saying something cuz CZs have excellent triggers).

I am pretty experienced with gunsmithing and it's sounding like a 1911 is a great system if setup and tested properly.