As I understand things, features in the VCP version flow from the lesser, or the 2D/3D. I thing/guess that some features in various Shark versions may sometimes flow backward to VCP to bring VCP to the same version NUMBER as VC 2D/3D and Shark versions.

This isn't necessarily bad since 2D/3D might be very acce$$ible for more who want to test the waters. In some ways, this might make 2D/3D a "loss leader" given all the effort put into it before people upgrade to Pro.

I'd upgrade from VCP to Shark but I keep falling off the cycle and not getting my money together to be ready for Shark pricing drop surprises. If one thing gets me to Shark and out of VCP it will be external references, so I can cut down on sizes of individual files.

I just tried looking into this myself, the folks at punch just had a very nice price drop on shark fx v7. 3D v8 is almost the pro v7 beta and shark fx v7 is a bit more. I believe it's a cycle and currently 3d v8 is the newest, not the best, but the best dollar value if you don't need all of the bells. Me, i'm just a "dope" home user, not a design guy or engineer. guess it comes down to what you need, and know how to use, for your work flow.
i got the shark fx v7, kind of wish it had the sp-1, like the beta allowing support for windows 64 bit. now i just got to learn how to use it.