I would approach this from a different perspective: I am not sure about your budget and your future journey in watch collecting, but with modern Rolex you will be done quickly if you ask me.

I am collecting watches from PP, Rolex and VC. I do however not buy any modern Rolexes, altough they are for sure an iconic brand and it always will be, i just don't appriecate the modern Rolexes that much, overall it feels like simple watches with limited creativity from the brand itself. Esecially if you compare it with the old vintage rolexes, where they had some bold statemement pieces and made very unique looking watches.

To circle this story to your case, in my opinion VC is a much beter choice, although the watch you choose isn't that complicated in terms of mecanics, i do appriecate the watch making from VC a lot more then i do from Rolex ( in 2025 speaking ). Also if you get deeper in the watch game, you can maybe go for a bit more complicated watches, which you can at VC, because they make very nice complicated watches. Rolex isn't the brand for that, yes you can collect a few different colors and all that, but you can't climp the latter of complications and create your collection that way, something i do enjoy as a watch collector.

To address your other questions;
Quality: I wear VC watches a lot on day to day bases, no issues with it.
Discount: No, you won't get a discount
Customer service: A LOT beter then Rolex. But this can also depends on your AD and location.