I'm surely no authority of nicotine. However, after working with VT for about a month, I think I can make a good personal comparison between HV, WL, and VT.
I'll say that VT is my current favorite. It is good in its own way but to me for probably different reasons than for most folks. However, I wouldn't call heartland or WL bad. I'd say they're a bit warmer and possibly add a bit more coloring to the flavor of CERTAIN juices…initially.
I say warmer because I notice a degree of heat sensation in nicotines and have never noticed a "peppery" taste that everyone mentions…in any nicotine that I've used. What kind of pepper are we talking about? Black, red, jalapeño? I don't know. Never tasted it.
I say initially because after steeping all compared juices, I really don't notice much difference other than MAYBE a bit of heat and price difference.
I like VT because it does actually allow flavors to shine through a lot more right away without steeping. I can mix and vape right now. I'm not sure what's up with that but it is so. So to me, it's a great tester and emergency nicotine. I can mix SINGLE flavors pretty close and then mix them with my less expensive HV nic and then allow them to steep. In the long run, they're the same or close. All complex and multi-flavor mixes even with VT need to steep to develop.
In my opinion, VT does have plenty of throat hit just like the rest, doesn't require less flavoring than the rest, and does require steeping to meld and develop flavors correctly…just like the rest. And it does have flavor and warmth just like the rest. Maybe a bit less but it's still there.
Don't pour your WL or HV down the drain just yet. Wait a bit.
Like I said, I'm no nicotine authority and haven't tried them all. Still, I wouldn't start calling WL "horrid" as I saw mentioned earlier in this thread or start finding fault with the folks at HV. In my opinion, it's all still the same as the raves were last month before VT came along.
Newbies, test them all, make your own decisions, and rely on your own mind with your own opinions. Like I said earlier, VT is MY current favorite for certain reasons but still intend to use HV for others as long as they still make good tasting juice.