No V instruction set is going to be a big handicap though, as that's pretty much RISC-V's equivalent of AVX and missing those instructions is going to suck big time.
Pretty much my issue is that the one that is the closest to shipping is also the one missing V instructions. I am far more skeptical over potential processors especially after Horse Creek just vanished into thin air.
Two just say RVA23, one is "Compliant with RVA23 excluding V extension".
It's a long way to say "Not complaint with RVA23."