Hmm... I've been drawn into a similar argument on this forum before and I'm not going there again!!! :wink:
At the end of the day, it is down to personal preference, and all I can say is that I have owned a couple of Veritas planes, found them fiddly, awkward and fragile, however good their design and supposed engineering innovation was.
So for me, needing to rely on these tools alone to make money, Lie Nielsen, three late 1950's Records and 2 Stanleys do the job without me needing to think about the tool while in use. I really don't care what they look like.
For you, the Veritas may provide an equivalent solution to L/N for me. And that's cool; variety is, after all, the spice of life. 8)
As for the A2, again personal preference I suppose. The L/Ns came with A2, and I had no choice, so I just got on with it. I cut everything from bubinga and wenge to spruce, and have never had an issue.
Just an observation a bit off topic but related, but there does seem to be a lot of navel gazing when it comes to planes, choice of steel, flattening soles to within a micron, etc which I don't understand. I'm not having a go, but I don't get it; they're just tools. I know many people are new to woodworking, have no formal training and need a helping hand, but this stuff just seems to over-complicate what is a fairly simple operation. As I said, just an observation, no offence intended. :mrgreen: