Hi James,
Thanks for your input to help make SDL TMS a better product. We've recently fixed an issue with the Archiver to make it a little more robust if there are any problems with database connectivity or plugins timing out; perhaps that will help alleviate this problem for you. Do you have any specific examples of Archiver being "finicky" because ideally we would need to raise them as defects and fix them under the normal customer satisfaction channel.
Thanks,
David