This basically just shows skiing is down to taste. I happen to remember you also ride Lizzies and rode EPs so clearly we don't even have that different taste.
I thought the exact opposite pretty much, I found the rockered Blend lacked solid grip in the carve that the old ones had and I felt the S3 held an edge much better when pushed. In pow the S3 just had a smoother way of cutting through the snow, it slashed more nicely too. Its probably a less jibby ski than the Blend but going forward, especially when skiing hard, I found it more stable.