If this were reddit, I'd give you all the kudos and karma points I could, what a wealth of information you shared! Thanks so much 
I ended up pulling the trigger on the Mark VII today, I was going to go used but a dealer friend of mine offered me a sale price I couldn't say no to on a new one. It was a Black Friday kind of thing, let's just say it might have been under $3k 
Anyway, yeah, I am a sucker for the Mark series aesthetic, and now that I'm familiar with the Mark III, also, how they work. I do want a Badlander 50 (my dealer friend says the 50 sounds better for whatever reason), but that one I'll wait a few weeks on, or maybe sell some stuff to pick up. I'm basically buying all the amps I ever wanted after about 10 years of not buying a damn thing and putting everything towards my mortgage, so it's kind of insane just how many amps I've bought over the last 2 months
Anyway, should be interesting to compare the Mark VII to the Mark III, and I am intrigued about the Mark VII mode. I was secretly hoping the Mark VII mode would give a Badlander sound, since both amps seem to be created in the spirit of Mark meets Recto (well, the Mark VII mode on the Mark) and of course the Badlander itself. Maybe an amp modder will come out with a Badlander mod for the Mark VII channel, then it would the be end all, be all Mark amps to me, at least "on paper" right now
It will probably be a week before I get any of these amps, probably going to be the longest week long wait ever, but again, I'm thrilled about it. I'm happy that I decided to try the Mark series again, as many years ago I tried the Mark IV and absolutely hated it and I wrote these amps off entirely. Little did I know that with a little bit of reading and patience I would later discover that these amps are fantastic and absolutely have the sound I hear in my head Though It is a shame it took me so long to come back to these amps, as I can't tell you how many Mark IIC+'s I passed on for $1500-2200 back in the late 90s and early 00's...but hindsight is 20/20, lol
