The difference is the day and age aspect.

Bikes of yesteryear were held in high regard because of the builder, like a Pogliagi, a Colnago, or a Guerciotti for instance. The frames got their magic from the name, not necessarily the quality. People bought into the "Voodoo" bit of the name. I saw some famous framebuilders shops in Italy in the 80's and I dare say that most modern USA citizens would freak out on the mess and haphazard building. But they worked perfectly, and had that lineage.

Vanilla is going off of the attention to detail, craftsmanship, and paint, Sacha White is secondary to his own creation in a way. Where the old style handbuilts rested on the builder himself, and not the execution.

Now we have faceless factories pumping stuff out, and we as consumers and people demand a human at the helm, no one likes talking to a machine, we want the operator, a real live person.

Vanilla is a benchmark of sorts, people can feel safe that the name "Vanilla" has presence, and will retain some sort of value. Getting that reputation is not easy. As long as Vanilla bikes are built (what we cannot see) to an incredibly high standard, then let him get his due.

Bikes are cool.