With ya on the maintain and use, including the cars. I have a general rule, when I buy new, what ever the loan term that term gets doubled as the minimal life of vehicle... so on avg I drive a vehicle 10-16 years, 200-300K miles. Drives my co-workers & family bonkers, why do I keep it... trade for new model. Why... took years to get seat fitted and more years to train it to read my mind LOL! We grew up with tractors that were 20+ years old and they'd ask why do I need a new one... a rebuild is much lower in cost. I may pick up a used vehicle at times... different set of rules, either sell when need is done or drive it into the ground. Looking for a Chevy HHR Panel now for UAV setup... wanted to setup a '34 Sedan Delivery as UAV rig but $40K for the '34 or $4-5K for the HHR... pretty is pretty, but she'll do the trick on the cheap too. OK, ya owe me for a kitchen stool... broke mine falling off reading the your last paragraph!
The I2 is talked about a lot and the cinema group loves it, especially with the X5S or X7S attached. I probably haven't touched it's potential but it doesn't impress me as much as the Matrice platforms. Kinda of what you indicated... if I had paid the retail price for this setup with comparisons to the I1v2 as an upgrade... I'd have felt a little guilted. It does have a lot of nice features, and I like the 3 PIP screens.. Pilot FPV, Camera and Map, heated batteries, etc.
The Matrice platform in standard build are setup in an over powered design. The M210 has potential as it gets included more in main-core technical programs. The aftermarket is bringing outstanding products out targeted at the M210 for speciality fields: SAR, AG, Survey, etc.
The big boy Matrice, M600 Pro, it's kinda in the same boat as the H920. It had huge development plans and the M210 took it's thunder and it basically fell static. The speciality builders are having a good time with it for heavy lifting needs but all the other designs shifted over to the M210. You can still add components, it still supports multiple "available" gimbals, can add the RTK system, works with modern programs, etc... so it's not a dead horse but it's not developing. It takes 6 x TB48S batteries, super flight time if anything other than a full cinematic or DSLR A7 is mounted up. Huge motors, 21" props... slow rpm - hi torque has a very nice sound... think B17.
To experiment, I picked up a bucket of material at 15, 20, 25, 30 lbs on a 20' line. Up to 20, it just lifted it... 25 & 30, the props sound picked up more thump but gracefully lifted and could still forward flight at 18mph (self induced max) and turn without a control or balance issue.
As with ALL "modern" DJI, the batteries are grossly over priced. Incidentally, another reason the I1v2 stays around... batteries much lower cost to operate. That is one huge benefit of custom builds, H920 or the platforms you mentioned above. My experimental I'm still in build process is an S1000 SpreadingWings Octal, rebuilding with hard to find E1200 Pro Kits... bigger motors, ESC, props, and moving to new A3 Pro and Lightbridge 2 electronics, M600 mount system, etc. Main objective... non-dji batteries in a M600 class heavy lifter.
I continue to watch the H520, more for the technical projects and not photographic. It's size is moderate for a stable Hex and has strong potential. I don't like the price of it in comparison to the H-Plus, especially when they are basically identical machines less FW. I am encouraged to see the 640 resolution Thermo released for it and the other 2 are nice units too. I'd like to see interchangeable lens model... doesn't have to be a large MFT, just interchangeable lens.
I'd like to see Yuneec bring out a 720 Industrial sized Hex... maybe a 1020 with standard LiPo HV cells. A mount system to take all the H520 cameras and add MFT or Full DSLR fully integrated into FC. Again, as discussed kinda revamped 920.
But we know the path on that one... когда свиньи летают! .... when pigs fly!
