I've had 3 Octavia's in the last 5 years.
1.6 manual ( mk 2 )
2.0 manual ( mk 3 )
and the present
2.0 DSG ( mk 3 FL )
As good as the 1.6 is i found the 2.0 a lot better , apart from the extra oomph and hence increased drivability i found that switching from 1.6 to 2.0 gave an improvement in fuel economy , 3 > 5 MPG better on average. After nearly 50 years of driving a manual gearbox i have found driving the DSG to be very nice , as such i cant see me going back to a manual gearbox anytime soon .
As others have said the 7 speed box fitted to the 1.6 has a reputation worse than the 6 speed box fitted to others.