Better then what exactly?
Wow, now you have gone from saying the FW is bad to saying the whole suite is very poor? On Avast!'s own forum no less? Your big brass stones swing mightily :o ;D
I’m lost on that metaphor, fuel efficient compact vs. performance sport = FW vs. FW …how?
We are talking about the firewall is Avast IS people. Gezz.
If your lost with that metaphor then your lost in general.
I appreciate the input…that helped quite a bit and definitely answered my question. Back to HIPS…
No, I believe it is you who might be lost, as in maybe forgot this is Avast!'s forum? If you had your own bad experience with AIS then of course you could post about that. But touting Matousec as the truth and crapping on Avast!'s doorstep? (wait, maybe I am lost, is this Comodo forums ??? ;D )
What, first you move the topic away from HIPS, now you want to go back? 
Sure…I heard what I needed to know and now it can revert back to who has the nicest HIPS!
Just look at Avast's scores over at Matousec and it explains all
Matousec test is about HIPS not for firewall so Avast scores very low…
Matousec is NOT reliable and independent… Why worry about?
Gizmo criticizes the Matousec’s tests. It’s a technical reading, but seems fair (http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/matousec-personal-firewall-tests-analyzed.htm).
Others point to an interest conflict on Matousec’s tests, reducing their independence (?) (http://smokeys.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/matousecs-firewall-challenge-wrinkle-conflict-of-interests/).
Leak tests are popular mainly because they are very easy to perform: you simply run a program, and it tells you if it passed or failed the test. However, life is not that simple, unfortunately.
The primary goal of a firewall is to keep hackers out of your system, that is, prevent inbound attacks in the first place. It’s astonishing that many firewaller “testers” only focus on outbound protection, completely ignoring the inbound part (which is absolutely vital). It’s like they assumed it worked flawlessly in case of all the products, which, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to be the case, really.
Next, outbound protection is of course also important, but so called leak tests are not everything. There’s a myriad of other things that a decent firewall should do, and which are usually not assesed by these tests. All I’m saying is that testing a firewall is a very complex task and focusing on leak tests is a gross (and inappropriate) simplification.