Regarding the price difference,
The Evolv Cricket is made 100% in the USA including the chip (aside from the battery I assume).
The lightning pens, China 100%.
So that's the explanation on that one.
It costs a lot more to make things in the US.
Also Evolv is not a 'huge' company, I bet they didn't even make 5K of these on their 1st run.
The issue is, we have become accustomed to Chinese pricing, which involves slave (yes slave) labor often, and sub-par engineering and materials.
The lightning pen is great, but, it's easy to see why it's affordable.
As far as clouds go, you have to know HOW to use this device. Too much dab and you wont get clouds. Failure to pre-heat the dab is another one.
I get plenty big clouds with mine.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you can only load about a BB's worth of concentrate into the Cricket, so..... there's that factor toning down the cloud a bit.
Also, one must find the right temperature for their particular dab material.
I'm not easily impressed, and I have stuck to the V5/lightning cups until lately. Now, I'm all about the Cricket.
It's far more economical than the v5, and easier to load than the lightning pen.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the Cricket vs. lighting/v5.