>>1182916This is much more of a luxury gear item than you seem to think. By nature, it's going to be very delicate, although I don't know about "shoddy stitching." My experience with Zpacks workmanship has only been positive. However, this tarptent uses really lightweight materials in its construction. On top of that, it's a lot more expensive than comparable tents, so the performance to price ratio isn't very high.
I'm no poorfag, but this is the definition of diminishing returns. I'd much rather spend that $700 on a nice down sleeping bag (if you don't have one) and a slightly less expensive tent, tarp or tarptent. Even if silnylon is also a little fragile, it's still less expensive, so when you break it, you'll cry less when you struggle to patch the hole.
>>1182954I also have a Duomid (non XL). My head doesn't brush up against the roof if I sit up. It's quite tall inside. The XL version is going to be even taller, but you will need to figure out the poles. With mine, I can use a single hiking pole as support, but any taller and I might not be able to do that.
I don't cook in my tent because I don't want to attract bears, but it doesn't really have a separate vestibule, per se. It's a pyramid-shaped tarp with a single, undivided footprint that you can do whatever you like with. You could cook under it, if you were so inclined.
