TTT is talking rubbish. There is nothing wrong with MSE and it is not riddled with malware, spyware or anything else. We have it installed on all our PCs (we have 6) and they are all virus free.
I've never had problems with Avast being intrusive; it occasionally tells me to install updated programs, and sometimes I do and sometimes I ignore it. I think of that as helpful rather than intrusive.
I don't need to read that article. I know that all our PCs are virus free as I am the one in charge of maintenance for all of them. MSE has been fine for us so why change!?