"Turning on super-sampling in the Steam VR config file makes a huge difference in visual quality."
In some of the games yes. In some games where there is proper antialiasing implemented adjusting super sampling just breaks things or atleast last time I tried it with holopoint, but you really don't need it there. 40-60 fps for me is totally acceptable. I have experience few lags too with 970. It's not that bad with vive I think. Only when you move with controller without teleporting/blinking and you can always turn down graphics. Vive just needs more quality games, but everyone seems to be reinventing paper physics. Some kids people play games at less than 25 fps and they are perfectly fine with it. They don't even know about better since the hardware is up to their parents wallet.
The requirements have changed, but at this point I'm really not sure if it's just the graphic perfectionist who use quality panels and require 120 fps at 2k resolution like how I was. I would be more interested how a regular homie feels about all this than quality elitist.
PSVR has one really good thing. The ergonomics are much better. I have never tried it, but it puts it's weight on the forehead instead of face. I think it's highly possible that psvr is the only vr system that succeeds on large scale even if it's not up to challenge vive on quality.