The big stone stove should've got the job done just fine. Too bad you didn't find us before giving up on that one.
I'm thinking you have few things working against you as others have said. The old stoves would burn anything, we see posts similar to yours many times during the burning season. "The chimney drafts great, the wood burns fine in my old stove." These new stoves are draft sensitive and wood sensitive, either of those are too far away from what they're expecting and you'll be unhappy with the experience.
It sounds like you had your mind made up on the stove before you came here. No worries, I did the same thing with my first stove. I came here asking about a Lopi Endeavor, no one said not to use it but posted about some other good stoves to check out that I promptly dismissed. I realize now I was just looking for confirmation that I made a great stove choice!
The stove worked ok but wasn't what I was looking for in the end, I ended up selling that stove after 2 seasons of use and bought my BK. Starting my third season with my BK and have an itch to try something new, not because the BK isn't a performer but just like vehicles I always want something different.
Once you get the new stove installed if it's giving you any issues please post up, this group is pretty passionate about heating our homes with wood stoves as efficiently as possible.