[Christ]

I like solenoid valves, without springs or with, simply because there is no physical contact holding the valve in the down position... Far less chance of damage to the piston, should it make contact, as it will just push the valve back into the solenoid windings.

Why would anyone have to pull the head to change a solenoid, Joe? They'd be right there under the valve cover...

I also don't agree with "the more things change the more stuff to go wrong"... This may be the case at times, when the new product is only an illusion of an upgrade, but in most cases, new products are designed to move away from the frailties of the existing system. Often, in this day, it's geared toward efficiency loss.

With a cam, you've got high speed rotation, a 2:1 reduction, and reciprocal actuation, to which I personally believe the valve springs do not return that which they take in energy to compress.

With electronic valves, the engine management can precisely control valve movement based on flow, velocity, O2sat, load, tps, engine temp, etc. It can precisely meter airflow to provide the best possible combustion characteristics for a given set of parameters.

Cams are so last decade... Time for a change.