The only issue I have seen with cork was on the cascade mountain tech poles, and that was only one set out of probably 10. Cork vs foam makes no difference to me, they both work fine.
Eta: I had a couple sets of komperdell poles back in the twist lock days. No interest in going back to twist locks, but I had no complaints about the quality of the poles.
As to the adjustment, all of mine adjust easily without tools.
Last edited by cwh2; 08/25/22.
