The DG-1000 Club seems a good illustration of the law of unintended consequences. Having the fixed gear as far down as the retractable version would impose a significant drag penalty, but having it higher up imposes a higher takeoff and touchdown speed.

The electric gear version can fail to come down. The flight manual recommends practicing the emergency gear down mechanism periodically. I know of one gear up landing where the Instructor had not practiced the emergency gear down.