The coil was a total fail for me.
As to the Lotus vs Genies, let me clarify. What I don't like about the Genies is part of the heating process is the beginning of the hit where you must draw on it to get the ceramic up to temp. So by the time it is up to temp and ready to produce vapor, I have already filled my lungs more than half way...lots of sucking at first with no vapor. With the Lotus, you don't have to suck while preheating. You just torch it and you get vapor once you start your draw, so it is a more relaxing hit.
They are both big hitters that can combust if not using proper technique. I have mastered the standard Genie as well as the Glass Genie and can get crazy hits off them, but I prefer the Lotus.
I understand and agree with your observations. As paytonpenn and you have correctly mentioned, the airpath is completely different between the two of them..especially if using the al. stem w. the Lotus. My preference tends to lean towards a less restrictive path. Not that I don't like the al. stemmed Lotus (I have it/ use it all the time), but I prefer using a J hook with it..... probably for it's open pathway more than any other reason. In fact, my recollection was that it took me a while to dial in my draw technique with the Lotus because I had gotten so used to the VG....I really didn't care for it at first.
It's also my opinion that the Lotus is very difficult to combust with relative to any of the other flame driven devices I've been using. So in that regard it's probably a better way to introduce the concept of vaporization to the ignorant masses.
As far as the coil goes, like I said, I have no personal experience with it. From everything I've read it sounds like it's fairly crude even when compared to the rest of the VG lineup. I only brought it up as a matter of practicality. The classic or HC would offer better performance for sure, would likely be more forgiving and the vapor product is completely acceptable IME.
The coil looks like it would be marginally less crack pipe like in appearence when in use too so if being somewhat less conspicuous is important to the user, this may matter.
I've heard that burning your fingers is an expectation when learning to handle the coil....it might be worth having it around just to watch that happen (to others)