Thinkpads whether they are old IBMs or Lenovo are still designed by the same people. In fact the Think line IS the old PCG group sold by IBM to Lenovo. A few machines are hybrid designs but still have to go through the PCD development teams before release. I'm sorry I can't help you with the problem but I cannot let unfounded rumors perpetuate.
I run PCLOS on three Lenovo products (X100e,X120e, and even an old 3000 series laptop) with no problems. The development team at PCLOS might have some problems with newer hardware but the x series I have run fine.
