I would have to agree with the above sentiment as I'm also struggling with justifying this upgrade. I'm in a similar position to previous posters having been a VSL user since the earliest days. I have no need for additional plugins, do not need or want the Epic Orchestra and built my setup around 3 machines as that had seemed a very fairly priced setup with VEPRO and for a long time the intent behind using it most efficiently. I used to be a working composer but are no longer, now only composing ocassionally and for personal projects.
Now to pay 165 Euros to upgrade what I had before seems excessive and I'm not really sure of the great benefit, (they seems to be relatively incremental and GUI based?) especially given the issues that are being reported with many cases here. I'm sure that these early hiccups will be ironed out and I also realise a company can charge whatever they feel appropriate for their product and its up to a user to decide if its worth upgrading / supporting further development. But to be honest this has left a bad taste in my mouth and is making me question whether this is the most efficient way for me to setup my studio given that this high upgrade pricing is now I suspect going to be the norm going forward.
Although I'm confident it's not the intent of VSL I too feel like I'm being ripped off a little here. At a time when just about all of my other music software providers, including Steinberg for my DAW are offering increasing value this seems like a large decrease in value exploiting mainly VEPRO's lack of competition. I know other alternatives are far less efficient and I have used most of them over the years but if this is going to be the cost of continuing to stay with VSL then it may be time to explore other options. Alternatively of course I could take a punt on this and see if it feels worth the price, can't decide at this point and I believe today is the last day of the upgrade pricing so may take the easy option and pass for now.
This is intended as honest feedback for a company I have had a lot of respect for and spent a lot of money with over the years. I just think it would be easy to assume that anyone not posting on forums, like myself till now, are happily upgrading and feel like valued customers who are receiving good value. Whilst this may be the case, it might also not be so I felt it more useful to offer honest feedback than just not purchase and not comment.