Glad that the thread is going back on point, and my apologies
@madmonkey for my contribution towards derailing it.
You're right -- nothing wrong with the small screen DNA. What drew me to the PVA was the fact that in November 2014 there was only one choice for a commercially available dual battery DNA40: a Vapor Flask. It cost $300 and you had to be quick when they came into stock or you'd miss it. I bought one in Nov and loved it. Still do -- at any point in time I usually own about 20+ mods, but the VF is one that is always in daily rotation. A small screen DNA40 without atty lock is still a very capable performer. It can challenge your build skills, but it also can deliver an excellent vape.
I wanted a second one but $300 is hard to justify once, and impossible to justify a second time. So the PVA comes along and offers the same chip, dual batteries and a price point of $140. Yes, it wasn't all that sleek and sexy looking, but it had the chip and battery life I wanted. I jumped in.
You have to remember that the PVA pre-dates the introduction of the Hcigar DNA40 and was at about the same time as the Innokin SVD2 with the DNA 20. These were watershed events: China using a US chip. Get the advantages of lower priced gear without having to do without an authentic chip. I didn't care much for Peg's videos, communications style or his "Academy" but figured the overall concept was sound. Granted, he proved to be an incompetent boob at best, but the concept itself -- a crowd-sourced, crowd-driven design -- remains sound. It was his execution of it that sucked.
Had the current PVA been delivered in Jan I wouldn't be upset. Still would not care for the buttons and the weight, but I would have kept it and used it since there were no other temp controlled devices available. But fast forward to July, and we now have a huge number of temp controlled options available. Some good, some bad, but many of them at price points well below $140. For me it was not worth keeping the PVA since I have other temp controlled mods at hand (and plan on getting a few more -- drooling over the DNA200!).
That's good for vapers, but not so good for retaining the value of a mod. My VF is probably worth less than half of what I paid for it in Nov. I'm fine with that since I've been getting daily use out of it since then. With the PVA, we had to eat the depreciation without the benefit of using it. Add to that the ridiculous lack of transparency for the project sprinkled liberally with incompetent project management and you have the disaster that is the PVA40.