As a custom rod builder, I felt the same way. I only got the rod because my friend's wife asked to help her get a decent one. It also cut down on me having to repair his rods too. I owned a couple of telescopic rods as a kid in the 80s and those rods were just bad, unless you were going to fish from the shore or close to water.
After, receiving the rod, I was VERY impressed with it. I was light weight and though. The action was good too. I'm sure I could build a better qualiy telescopic for myself, but it was and is a nice rod. WARNING, there ARE still bad ones out there. My friend tried to get another type of telescopic rod, and it was just bad. I would think buyers would have to have an "eye" for what they are looking at component wise, and do some research.