I'll be keeping mine for the foreseeable future. I'll at least weigh my options again in 2018, but from day one when I bought the car new I wanted to keep it for 10+ years and put a few 100k miles on it. Mine has 53k on it now and still feels new to me and I really enjoy driving it. Like others have said it's almost in a class of its own and it fits my lifestyle so well. It's super efficient on long road trips, great fun to drive (It has been to the The Dragon twice now), can tow my camper and get 30mpg, has a great fit/finish, and the usability of the hatch is fantastic.
Not to mention the accessories I have and mods I've already done just to make it that much more enjoyable for me.
As far as reliability the car has been perfect apart from intercooler icing once. As a side note after 25k miles of being deleted and tuned I pulled off the lower boost hoses last week and they were completely dry and spotless....no oil, no sludge, no water....nothing.
Scheduled maintenance and upkeep is more expensive than say an Accord (I just sold our 2014 Accord), but that should surprise literally nobody. Sure VW is the "budget" German manufacturer, but maintenance costs for German cars have always been more expensive and that shouldn't really shock anyone.
Strangely enough I rather enjoy properly maintaining a vehicle. I love wrenching and doing diy stuff and the satisfaction you get when the car rewards you with reliability is great; even if it costs more than your average econobox that you just fill with 87 octane and change the oil.
I'm not going to ignore some of the major issues that we all know about...some of which are arguably inexcusable, but at the same time who else was building a direct competitor that could offer what the TDI could in terms of performance, utility, and economy? There definitely wasn't anything for the $24k I paid for my 4-door Golf 6MT.
In some ways it doesn't seem totally outlandish to just accept some of the quirks/downfalls of a product as the price of admission when you're buying something that is unlike anything else at the time. German cars are especially notorious for this by offering tech/options/systems long before you see them in other manufacturer's vehicles.
All that being said I can't blame anyone for wanting to do the buyback. Not everyone keeps their car for 10 years and financially you will never come across a better deal.....unless you barn find a 993