I think the Black Box warning primarily applies to people of color. Advair is supposedly safe for other people.
Personally I don't like the drug combinations. Makes it more difficult to tweak the steroid component of your meds, as you might want to do if you were sick. I guess the combined med is supposed to make it easier to stick to your drug plan, and maybe cheaper? But if you can get the meds through a good mail order pharmacy, that helps with cost...I do 2 puffs of my controllers in the am, 3 in the pm, plus rescuer/nebulizer as needed - really not a big deal. I had more hassles when I wore contact lenses!