Nice to get some respect, even if it is in disagreement
Thing is, I'd rather spend the money up front on a good lathe, and as I learn and improve my skills, spend money in bits on the better tools, just my way of doing things.
I have not seen the General, not for sale here, my concern is that on a lot of the "Price Point" lathes, it's the little things that suck the things you may not notice up front, stuff like the handles to tighten the banjo to the ways, or the handle to tighten the tool rest in the banjo, on some of the smaller lathes I've seen, these parts are not up to snuff, they are difficult to tighten and such. These are the things that you will have hands on many many times each time to stand there turning. Like having a good computer, but a mouse that sticks, or a keyboard that has a few sticky keys, annoying as can be.
With the VL100, you will not ever have to worry about that stuff, it is a top drawer machine.
I'm not saying the General is NOT good, I'm just saying that I'd look at those things.
About the speed thing, I don't know how easily your lathe changes speeds, but when you can do it on the fly, or at the touch of a button it is something you use a lot more.
I find the use I get out of the sanding pads is double or triple when I sand at 200 rpm, compared to 400 rpm, I've tried both, and the slow stead speed does not build up heat and the sanding is smoother, for me, YMMV
Certainly Jay can get into the whole spinny thing on the cheap, I did, the old tube bed C-man lathes are out there for less than $50, but, I do not think that is the way to go. I'd at least get a Jet, or one of it's clones, but, to me, for just $220 more, the VL100 sure seems to be a LOT more lathe than the Chiawanese General lathe, one other point is that the VL100 has been on the market for a while, the General is a fairly new lathe, I don't like buying the first run of most anything, I'd rather not be the one to work out the bugs.
Anyway you slice it, the slope is slippery Jay, enjoy the slide down it!!