Having never owned one, but know about them and been in one, Vtecs are a good engine, no petrol head would argue with that, they also are reknowned for there reliabilty, so I don't know where you get "rattly little cars" from?

Vtec depicts "Variable valve timing and electronic lift control", they have two cam profiles, when the "Vtec kicks in yo" the high performance cam lobe is locked into place and it is used instead of the otherwise "economy cam", it's very good engineering, the ONLY similarity between Vtec and forced induction is that both increase the VE of an engine!

So it's totally the opposite to what you thought, Vtec is sophisticated compared to the basic and very old fashioned method of forced induction!

Think of it this way, the "K20A" a 2L Vtec as found in the Type-R EP3 Civic etc makes 200HP (I know it's 197HP for the pedantic amongst us), that's 100HP a litre which is amazing for a N/A engine!

Martin