Markins - two new tripod/ballhead support products

Markins have released a couple of new products, one of which makes sense to me but the other doesn't. First there is the Tripod Hub TH-300 that replaces the spider base on a series-3 Gitzo. So the base on a series-3 is dodgy? According to Markins: "Replaces existing hub and provides enhanced stability and less vibration." So there you go, they also making the TH-200 for the series-2 Gitzo.

The product that makes a bit more sense to me is the VR Holder which provides extra support at the front-end of a lens. My Nikkor 17-55/2.8 is too much for my Markins Q3T head (see pic below); if you have the friction sweet spot dialed in the ball progressively binds with movement over 40º from the center. It's a real problem and there's no collar/A-S foot made for that lens. This product appears to be a universal support as the long dovetail rail probably allows a variety of weight combinations to be effectively balanced on the ballhead.

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The VR Holder does not support gripped cameras, no go for me.

I do believe the reason for the spider is to provide more rigidity when using a stubby centre column, no point having that thin tube if it's not needed.

The VR holder makes no sense to me, if your lens has a foot chances are that will provide the best balance point and they're usually long enough to provide enough fine tuning with a long plate. If your lens doesn't have one and it really is off balance then a simple longer plate on the camera body would suffice, the mount can obviously take the weight of the lens so the extra support isn't needed. I guess there may be an extreme example where a setup would require a stupidly long plate with a lot of flex.

I wouldn't go for it too. I'd rather get a tripod base instead.