VPHOT

I know there is a VPHOT forum but this post is more meta-VPHOT which might not be noticed by folks not monitoring that forum and I think it merits a wider audience.

There is a bit of background.  I took the Uncertainty course and, to my knowledge, there has been no call for feed back from users.  That, perhaps, should be another thread but one of my feed back items has to do with VPHOT so I will mention that one here.  The course was advertised as being based on VPHOT but we learned the instructor has never used VPHOT, hence could not address questions related to course material and VPHOT.  That then raises the topic of this post.

What is VPHOT all about, really?  (Let's clear away all the obvious things like it's a tool for measuring star magnitudes, etc.)  It has been promoted by staff, featured at meetings, etc.  Is VPHOT somehow "officially" recommended (perhaps as a tool to achieve more consistent data for the AID)?  If not, why not?  I know it is a work in progress but is there some long term plan or vision for it?  

There are at least some of us looking to work around VPHOT's current deficiencies to make our own data flows more efficient but, depending upon where VPHOT is going, might that mean duplication of effort?  Are efforts to improve VPHOT ultimately doomed?