I agree with most of your points, especially about poor seal for typical N95s, but in my personal experience, I am often wearing a mask intermittently, not wearing it for the whole day, and in that context I typically prefer to use a N95 which I can fold and put in my pocket—that convenience is very important for me. I definitely do recommend an elastomeric P100 for long-duration wear where the convenience factor is not an issue. And I found it basically impossible to make myself audible in a loud crowded environment, although it’s fine in quieter environments.
I have not done a lot of detailed research into different P100 filters, my cursory reading suggested that they were generally “good enough” for my purposes (N95->P100 being a large difference, while different P100 filters having only a relatively small difference, as far as I know), but I appreciate your info and suggestions.
The counterfeiting issues I’ve heard of mostly apply to N95s/KN95s/etc. I had not previously heard of it in the context of elastomeric respirators and their filters, although it wouldn’t surprise me. My experience with a couple other vendors I tried has been unpleasant (issues with long delays and no stock etc), so I ended up just going with Amazon. Do you have recommended vendors?
I mostly agree with you and go into that in detail on https://firstsigma.github.io/masks but I think the “average” reader (especially one who is still wearing cloth/surgical) is better served by a recommendation to upgrade to N95 first. I find that P100s are great for many situations, but they do have their downsides.