I use them every now and then, and have never found them to be dead, quite the opposite in fact (though it depends on the guitar...)
I have them on (and they sound great with) my Guild D-4, my Guild F-40T, and my Gibson CL-20+
I tried them on my Guild F-47CE and did not like them. This guitar seems to prefer (and is currently struing with) D'addario 80/20's.
My Martin (GPC) did not like them -in fact, I only like Martin strings on this guitar. My vintage J-45 didn't like them either, it is currently strung with John Pearse Pure Nickels.
I once put them on a cheap Gretsch jumbo (Rancher 5022), and they did not sound good. This guitar liked 80/20's better. Also put them on a cheap Takamine dread from the 90's and they sounded great.
I haven't yet found any consistent reason why any of the above is true (size of guitar, tone woods used, etc.) seems to be hit or miss! Good thing they are cheap enough to try out. For some reason, I thought that EFT16's were the standard factory installed string for Guild acoustics, but upon checking just now, it looks like they use a coated version of that string instead.
Good luck!