As I stated in my post (and is, by far, the consensus of near all tech sites, reviewers and most users):VeryTrueColors wrote: ↑ The article you mentioned compares 970 EVO Pro not 970 EVO Plus which is slower. As I mentioned in previous posts, I agree that 970 EVO Pro is definitely a quality product, while performance of the 970 EVO Plus is well below Pro version and of course well below PCIE 4.0 drives. So why buy something outdated rather than future proof hardware, especially when it costs less (unless you are ready to pay just for the brand, ignoring the fact that it is product from yesterday). And even if you do not have PCIE 4, Sabrent and other PCIE 4.0 drives are backward compatible, so whenever you upgrade to up-to-date hardware, you are going to enjoy full potential.
"This makes it clear that there isn't much of an advantage to getting a Gen 4 SSD if you already have a fast Gen 3 SSD."
It's time will come... that is not now, for a variety of good reasons. Which all deflect from the point you made and I'm addressing: you called the 970 Evo Plus mid-tier. Which is silly.