For me, mostly its a good system, but I wish the fan speed had faster settings for hot days
The aircon has a finite cooling capacity, and the warmer the air passing over the matrix and / or the larger the volume of air passing, the less it gets cooled. I proved this several times with a thermometer in one of the central vents - and the fact that during my tests only central dash vents being used and none of the others limited the volume of air the system was handling anyway down to a minimum. The Honda system uses a simpler more reliable scroll type compressor which has a fixed volume that it can pump, which is why the clutch is there to disconnect compressor. Some other cars use a complicated variable displacement piston pump, where the volume pumped can be varied to match the requirements of ambient temperature and engine speed, and compressor can be left connected to pulleys, those will still draw engine power even when aircon not turned on, I have no doubt the Honda system is designed to need no engine power when turned off due to the fact that compressor can be completely disconnected from pulley by the magnetic clutch.
I the MK4 has electric drive to compressor it may even have a smaller capacity than the engine driven one.
I have read that about 10% fresh air is allowed in because the 'flap' that closes off outside air is not allowed to close fully in recirc mode, so oxygen still getting into car and stale air pushed out. I think that the main problem with recirculate is that the air in the cabin can get very, very low humidity due to fact that the same air passes through matrix all the time ( just like food dries out in the fridge at home if not sealed in plastic containers ), and can dry your nose and promote drowsy feelings.
