^^ I will admit that Stages probably got a bad reputation for their early release products, which is what the one person i know using Stages is riding with. If you look at what the pro cycling teams use, aside from Stages bidding for Team Sky in a clear effort to clear their reputation, you won't find hardly any of them using affordable power meters such as PowerTap or Garmin. As you said, SRM is the gold standard, but at $3k for a power meter, you've got to be dead serious about accurate to the 4th decimal type of training to spend that much cash.
We almost bought a used TT bike from a local pro for $3500. BMC TMO1, Zipp 808 firecrests, SRM power meter, Dura Ace Di2. Was an awesome deal, but the guy is like 5'4 and my wife is 5'10". So no chance for a proper fit. But that SRM being included made it very tempting to buy it and part it out.
Not sure if it matters to you
Rayscott but when i'm talking about the people i ride with, of the 11 of them I interact and ride with on a weekly basis.... 2 of them are elite level cyclists who race Pro 1-2 and the remaining 9 are triathletes with more than 80 full distance Ironmans as well as countless Half, Olympic and sprint distance races between them. I am by a good measure, the slowest of the group.
Of the triathletes, 3 of them have a combined 16 trips to Kona (one going this coming year). One of them has been on the podium twice at the pro level in Kona. 2 of them are currently Triathlon coaches, one of which was named coach of the year by Ironman just recently. She recommends Stages to her athletes, but mostly because the majority of them are Jr's racing at the national level and don't have lots of money. Of those 11 people i'm describing, only 4 of them don't use a power meter. 1 of them uses SRM, 2 of them use Quarq, 1 of them uses Stages and the rest use Powertap. The few people i know with vectors are recreational riders (non racers) which i am as well. It's just that my recreational riding involves trying to keep up with these people on the weekend.
Might also be worth mentioning that 3 of my friends either own or manage bike shops. (the manager is one of the pro level racers above)
Even though i've only been road cycling for a little over a year, my wife is a triathlete and she's been riding with and been friends with these people for about 10 years now. I've had to be the fly on the wall at countless get togethers and being the only non cyclist in the group, had to listen to all of them talk for hours upon hours about cycling and training and racing and wattage and FTP and bla bla bla... haha It actually gave me a great head start on how to train once i started riding. Still have lots of training to do though. It really sucks when you're doing at all out sprint at 32 mph and your wife comes rolling past you with a smile on her face!
But, she adopted power meter training about 1 year into her picking up triathlon and has used that tool well.
I know that sometimes people on the internet seem like randoms who's opinions are never wrong, so i'm just giving you the back story on how i've formed my opinion on power meters.
