Well I was researching buying the complete 700 system. Lately it is being offered in fewer and fewer places. Then I come here and read a lot of negative stuff. So I guess my first question would be "is the v-studio 700 going out of existence?"

Everything goes out of existence in due time eventually. Nothing last forever. But the vs700 is a great system made better with X2a update that can last a long long time as a studio staple until you make enough money to retire from working. lol

When the VS-700 first came out people queued all night to get it. At that point in time no one thought it would revolutionize the way we live. Nowadays people carry special bags around for the VS-700 to let everybody know that they also own it and in the Roland store you can download apps that allow you to read the weather forecast from the channel strip labels, manipulate global warming with the VS-700 faders or simply order toilet paper.

Today we are let to believe that only the nicely designed gadgets from one particular company can do the job, or the clones that run off their patents ... anyway, to me it's a bit like "Video Killed the Radio Star". Somethings are here to stay - which may be real faders in real studios (but I may be wrong)

To come back to the original OP: I think the VS-700 is good enough to lead a long life in a small community. It's never been a mass market item. Everybody needs to decide for themselves what works best in their creative / work environment.

I now very much regret buying it. Support for it has been appalling. 

I will sell you my cs700r for $1100.  Here it is in a nutshell:

The mic pres sound GREAT.  I really like them.  I have no use for the Fantom synth included in the unit.

PM me if you are interested.  In perfect shape.  Comes with original box.

There is a lot of negative comments, basically you tend to get very focust on things that does not work, no matter how smal it is.
In my opinion there is enough "very nice to have" and "working excellent" about the 700 to keep me using it for a long time. Just like with an iphone or any apple product, you just have to ignore some flaws and focus on the good stuff. Focus on the flaws and you will miss out on a lot of great stuff.

Each to their own, I suppose. Myself, I feel ripped off. The fact that there are still acknowledged open issues but zero indication that there's any intention of fixing them does not inspire confidence. Cakewalk's treatment of v700 owners has been, in my view, utterly derisory. I've historically been a fairly staunch defender of the company until this, too.

Another point would be how horribly poor communication about this stuff has been. X2 was initially advertised as having v700 *enhancements*. Then not only did it not have them, it *broke* a lot of functionality. Then we were told there would be no fixes for it in x2a. Then there were a bunch of incomplete fixes. Which, I think I'd like to add to the record, I got a PM telling off for bringing up by a Cakewalk staffer. Followed by silence. I guess I'm only one customer, and anyone can absorb the loss of one customer, but I think I'm done with Cakewalk.

I like my V-Studio - BUT - the fantom is a waste of space. I get spurious lights at random moments on some projects, and sometimes the whole things locks up and goes stupid - then I have to shut EVERYTHING off to restart. Never really liked the fact that you have to shut it down to change the sample rates either.
 
Support from ANYONE anymore is an iffy proposition. I just gave up on Sony today after 3 days of trying to get my Sound Forge s/w activated ...again. (you can't call for help and emails get robo'd). Corporate world says we all have to do more with less and all we get is less with less. They haven't learned the basic lesson that coffee world learned and why there is a Starbucks today. When you offer customers an inferior product because the accountants say no one will notice, the customer walks away. Roland almost lost me with the VM-7200 system when they dumped it.
 
On the plus side, I spend 8 - 10 hours a day on it and I still haven't used it to it's limit. I have had other equipment that made me a lot crazier than this does. One more note...I have been with Cakewalk since the days when you got the program on one 3 in floppy aand I have been pretty well satisfied.
For now, I am just adding up the receipts and crunching the numbers and when the $$/hour get evened out, someone on craigslist will end up with a pretty console with old software.