Noisy? Hmm I guess you haven't driven a lot of cars cause the 3rd gen legacy (2nd gen Outbacks) are pretty darn quiet. I've owned a ton of subies (old ones too) and the door/window seals never make noise in mine (even on my '88 XT6 with over 100K years and that was when it was 12 years old).
As for the H6 w/MT, look for it next year, it is coming this spring to Australia which means we may see it next spring. 6MT from the STi is in it. I believe it's called the SpecB or something like that.
Headlights are lousy? Hmm try driving my '00 Isuzu Trooper and you'll see some bad headlights. Very easy and inexpensive remedy is to pickup some Hella driving lights, for under $300 you can have a nice setup.
-mike