Even after months of practice with the touchscreen, I find that one out of every 10 or so page turns I get a response different from my intention: the page turns in the wrong direction, turns two pages instead of one, triggers "open menu" command incorrectly, or does no action. I've found the swipes somewhat more accurate, net-net, than tapping, but they are a little awkward one-handed.

I've had miscues with the hardware buttons as well, but they're much less common.

The touchscreen's advantage is its on-screen keyboard. I found this a little better than the physical keyboard (which added too much size/weight) and d-pad selection. Though I only use that function once in a long while.

But it looks like the Paperwhite Kindle now has a capacitive touchscreen (rather than using IR sensing as the Touch does), so that may help.