I've had issues with Shimano reels now for over 10 years.
At one point, I owned Biomasters and still own numerous Stradics with the wood handle and Symetries in the old army green. I loved the reels when fishing from a 'real' boat, but as soon as I moved to canoe & kayak they had a binding problem. I wasn't alone with the binding problems - seems like when they got wet they locked up.
I bought a new 2500Mg and had the problems on day one so sent it back to Shimano - after charging me their maintenance cost to fix a reel I owned for less than four months, the reel still had the problems.
I switched to Daiwa but still owned all the Shimanos & started tinkering with them.
I was not alone with the binding problems. The Internet showed me many who had the problem & I came up with a fix of drilling out a plastic bushing that expanded when wet. This helped but didn't eliminate the problem. I found out that Shimano changed the rubber on their friction ring and tried that. But the new friction rings didn't seat as tight and after a year they expanded causing further issues. I removed the friction ring entirely and now the reels seems to work.
I will never buy a new Shimano product again. Used yes - since I just picked up a Sustain for a good price & am always looking for Stellas used - but won't pay the asking.
Daiwa on the other hand has had their own set of problems, but when I send the reels in, they get fixed with no cost. I also asked them to send me some parts that wore out quickly and they did, again no cost. Realize my Daiwa's are Fuego's and SoLs - not cheap - but Daiwa does take care of their customers who buy their top end reels.