Wendy is a very well respected reviewer over at
www.myce.com. The fact that she can give unbiased opinion on many different mfgr products should add credibility to the opinion she has given here. I'm sure Anand, knows this himself as well.
As for myself?.. well.. I have tried 3 other SSD controllers from various mfgrs and decided to use OCZ products because I'm more of the extreme power user type and find better performance with their products in general. I make no excuses for that or being where I am and actively recommend them to others still despite all the issues to date. To me, it(tier 1 or 2) doesn't really make much difference in a consumer based drive simply because I will be upgrading far before the warranty has expired anyways. In a enterprise drive where premium prices and mission critical/extremely high data usage?.. yes of course. I really don't need these drives to last 5 years and the kids will be happy to have them as a hand-me-downs for their game rig later on. Not to mention it'd be like sticking with an old USB stick running at 1.0 speeds just because it was the top line model of its day and you payed a premium price for it. To me, small capacity and slow performance would not justify getting that last bit of usage out of it just to get your moneys worth. Such is cutting edge tech's cost of ownership and early adopters pay the highest price.
My opinions here are not much different then anywhere else I would post them. In fact, my typically unbiased opinion often gets me into trouble over there as well since first and foremost, I'm a consumer just like all the rest of you. However, it's this hard nosed unbiased attitude that actually paved the way for the recent invitation to beta-test the new Vertex 3 drive. Right.. or wrong.. I just call it like I see it and won't be bought. In fact, I almost turned down the opportunity because I was worried it may affect my forum activity/obligate me in some way or make me feel "kept". lol
To me this subject really just boils down to marketing strategy and goes far beyond basic consumer awareness "we got your back" good doings on OWC's part. If the blood wasn't already spilled from the whole 25nm switch debacle, they wouldn't be spending their time digging at the wound that OCZ inflicted on themselves. Then of course all the OCZ flamers wouldn't have this thread to use as a punching bag to relieve their frustrations.
In the end, I think many more would be better spent to just buy hardware, use it, and then report on things they have firsthand knowledge of, rather than speculating and riding waves of ridicule or making conjecture of things they don't understand or have any experience with. I know it will certainly take more than some pictures, conjecture, and conspiracy theory to make me turn my back on a mfgr of which I've owned more than 50 SSD, 15 of which still reside in this house alone. If that makes me a fanboy?.. then so be it. At least I'm basing it on actual data and experience, which is more than can be said about some posting opinions here.