I agree, I think Vantage is overpriced currently ..I mean I would never swap out corona for vantage if that was the choice, so selling it for nearly twice the price is kinda crazy.. But, since I'm never going to switch to Blender and Eevee, this is the best option for "realtime" gpu rendering in max I have seen and I assume it will only get better - and eventually be able to replace a lot/most render jobs in the future. I would love for it to come as a bundle with corona rather than Phoenix, for 800 a year or something. In my opinion. But all in all I think its one of the best features Corona could add, and then just ditch the idea of a hybrid render.
And "willing to pay the extra $600 a year on top of the Corona subscription?" - that's an important point to let us know when chiming in for Vantage :) Thanks!
I would be surprised if anyone would think they can get Vantage AND corona for the price of one.