If VW do put a manual out there, let's hope they do it right. The box on my 2015 R was sh!te gravelly throw and infrequently refused to go 6th to 3rd or 2nd to 1st or neutral to 1st), and it came with a chocolate clutch that slipped a few times in the winter.
Obviously a bit late now but perhaps the cables needed adjustment? The shift on mine is great even with the mods I've done.
It had occurred to be that the cables needed doing, the local dealership groups kept fobbing me off.
When it was new, "give it time to settle down" was Pulman's response. 5 months later Pulman and Lookers both claimed it was normal for an R, and with manual R's being so rare, they never had an example to test drive for comparison purposes.
Every time it went in for service or warranty I'd ask them to look at it again. I was once told "the R box is a bit agricultural, to handle all the power, the bigger output Touaregs have the same box".
It all seemed BS, but 3 different dealerships were saying the same thing. At 2.5 years old, a colleague bought a late 2014 model second hand and I had a go in that - it's gearbox was as rough as mine.
All that is pretty indicative of how crap local dealerships are in the North East, or that VW perhaps wouldn't sanction paying for the work. VW UK customer service is absolutely piss poor (as I've found lately with refusal for work on my Polo's poorly adjusted tailgate).
None of that excuses the chocolate clutch on my unmodified R.