Alrighty then. I stand corrected.
I haven't even really LOOKED at the tools in Carrara's vertex modeling room since version 3. Things have vastly improved since then.
While it's still obviously not as powerful at something like Hexagon (judging from what I saw in the video), at least I find it usable now. Things like the subdivision preview help tons, as well at the new loop tools and such.
I tossed this together in a couple of hours, which considering how much I've used the vertex modelor (except for tweaking existing meshes or conversions from the other modeling types) isn't too bad, I suppose.