Thanks so much for taking the time to write this out for me! I'm so glad to have something that isn't from goulet pen's marketing team. Overall, if you knew everything you know about the pen now, would you buy it if you were me? My collection is mostly pretty low end, I think this would be the priciest one I will have purchased.
Hmmmmm. The problem is that I don't really know how you'll use the pen, or how much you'd value owning it. There are lots of pens that I've heard hyped up and then found disappointing in person. Mine was a gift, and has emotional attachments. It's an iconic pen, and I'm glad I have it. If it were ran over by a semi truck, would I replace it? Yes. I wouldn't pay $150+ for it, though. I'd either bide my time and wait for a sale, or purchase used. I'd have a hard time justifying that kind of price for any pen. If both my Parker 51 and Lamy 2000 got ran over, I'd replace the Parker first. For me, the Parker is a better pen. It'd also be more economic pen to acquire. Limiting myself to piston fillers, the 2000 would definitely be my choice. I'm not sure if this was helpful or not.