re: Soyuzes
Yes, Yuri Usatchev said he'd rather go to space in the Soyuz (same G load as the Shuttle, without the vibrations caused by the SRB's; except for a brief staging back and forth kick) and return back to Earth with the Shuttle (much more gentle).
The latest Soyuz landing (450 km off target) showed how reliable the capsule is, even when the G load was more severe than it should have been.
Cosmonauts don't really fly the Soyuz the way the shuttle astronauts fly their spaceplane.