I certainly wouldn't even point this out as a problem when reviewing a car, that's for sure.
It is not a "problem" with Elantra or Hyundai in particular. It was an observation on my end as it is one thing I check out on these A/T w/Manual mode trannies.
I would not single-out Hyundai for this as many manufacturers implement this feature the same way. Others got it "right" (e.g. Mazda, Mitsu on the Evo w/SST but not on the Outlander )
Would that be enough to make you not want to buy a vehicle, though?
Not even close. LOL… I have an Outlander with the upside-down arrangement. It's an annoyance at most and every car has its own share of those.
Since we are at it, changing gears on its own when in the Manual mode is another annoyance (more severe though but still not a deal-breaker for me if everything else is good), as well as having to move the shifter away from the driver versus towards the driver when switching to the Manual mode.
The next weird thing now is having a button on the shifter to do the up/down shifts in manual mode – new Focus and I believe the new BMWs (5-Series). I'm not a fun of this arrangement either.