In reply to TobyA:
the way they subdivide their lineup on all their websites except the UK one is:
‘specialised performance’ (i.e. performance priority): booster/boostic/mago, drago/drago lv/chimera/furia s, all the instincts
‘precision’ (i.e. competent allrounders): vapors, quantic/quantix (they also group the dedicated trad shoe lines – maestro and generator – in there, and the arpias used to be there as well)
‘relaxed fit’ (i.e. comfort priority): origin/helix/force v, reflex/velocity, the veloces
and in terms of model comparisons, i always read the instinct line as scarpa’s answer to the solutions (stiff forefoot, more flexible at/behind the ball of the foot), and the vapors more akin to the katanas and finales. so, not ‘casual’ shoes by any stretch, but not performance at all costs models either.
after all, their flatter toebox lends itself much less towards a highly cranked down fit (but is much more comfortable), they aren’t highly downturned, they skimp on performance features like big toe patches, and they sure sacrifice heaps of sensitivity for support. (i wear mine whenever i’m climbing stuff with undemanding feet on rock. the xs edge doesn’t work well for me indoors, and when i need to feel where i’m stepping on rock, i put on the dragos.)
but i’m 100% with you that it is becoming harder and harder to see a clear concept underlying all their models. some group clearly into familes, like the wide variety of instinct models, or the drago/chimera/furia-bunch. but many others seem to sit in roughly the same middle ground without much obvious differentiation. (see also: their 5 different low performance models)