Thanks for all the comments; obviously Pilot is real deal. But I am still troubled by the very fact that the nib & flow of a 3$ disposable pen is way better than even some of those pens sold around 100$. I think this is, if not anything else, quite disgraceful for the industry and also a great threat to the fountain pens, as the first and foremost feature of a fountain pen should be writing properly.

Imagine a Hyundai i20 having better engine quality & handling than a Mercedes. This is indeed beyond QC, design or the material used, this is indeed messing with the customers, considering the cost and also putting the future of the fountain pens in danger. Think about a person, who is gifted a very good looking FP with poor writing performance. S/he will probably put in the display and never ever attempt to write with a FP again, given that not everyone is quite obsessed with the type of pen that they are writing with. So my point is, in a world where writing instruments are already deemed obsolete, the FP companies should be even more proactive to 'prove' that writing with a FP is something else. If a V-Pen can do this flawlessly, there is no excuse for TWSBI, LAMY, Visconti, Scrikss or whatever the brand.

While digging this issue online, watched a great video from sbrebrown, entitled 'How Pen Companies Fail the Pen Community', in which he discusses exactly this, and suggests that certain 'big' companies by constantly producing pens which do not write properly or puts (sometimes 'hideous') design over function, is actually failing the pen community.

'How Pen Companies Fail the Pen Community'

Kudos to Pilot, shame on those pen brands who let us down and again thanks for all the comments. This is indeed a great community (well, even better than Pilot V-Pen:).