2nd hand deals are always a fine thing, danoliver1 sold his Vive with a DTS for £340 last week in the mm. I was tempted to buy it purely for a secondary unit and spares. If you are forced to buy new though, Ocuk have run several promotions on both the Rift and the Vive, the rift generally at a price discount, the Vive with a bundled DTS at no extra cost.
You're right about the dilemma with the Vive and it's ecosystem though, the staggered release of improved product, the high cost of the ancillaries needed, it's a nightmare for those looking to jump in, or even existing Vive owners.
Cost sounds like a thing though, and while the Vive pro currently is the shebang, it's not worth it if you're looking at starting fresh, it'll cost you around about a grand for the unit with controllers and sensors for an increased resolution which is still bound by the limitations of generation one VR. Putting your concern about the generational thing to the forefront though, currently with the software and hardware availability in terms of games and graphics cards, the current generation is still the sweet spot, you'll get at least a year probably two out of whatever you buy. The problem with waiting on Generation next, absolutely nobody knows when hardware will become available, it's technology that's tripping on the edge in development blogs, and no major software developer is going to support anything that unsubstantiated.
Phew!! Rift or Vive you get a fully functional HMD that does the VR thing well in it's current guise, as a display unit there's minor positives and negatives for both. Sensor, room scale the Vive is all in the package, the Oculus requires an additional sensor to match up. Controllers, Oculus takes the crown out of the box, if VR interaction is what you crave then the touch controllers nail that over the Vive (unless your purely in to table tennis, they're great replica bat handles
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Going forward: The controllers you mention are the evolution generation next, the infamous 'knuckles' something Valve have been pushing to developers for over a year, recently making the news because of the latest iteration, and what would seem one step closer to finalizing the design. Another going forward in the Vive ecosystem would be the official wireless adapter coming very soon to further muddy the water. As it's a much wanted product, you can bet a penny that HTC will cost it accordingly, rather than seeing greater gains in increasing their audience and desirability of product over fleecing their current user base.
Personally I would give yourself a months window, and hammer search of the secondary market, before deciding to buy new. While the Controllers can take beating if peoples room space is small, in general the rest is hard to damage with the sensors being static and out the way, the HMD will be either working or it won't, do check for dead pixels though... No biased but id look at a 2nd hand Vive first, most will have a DTS, and comes with the advantage of buying those extras down the line. If a Vive doesn't come up, you lose nothing by picking up a Rift that comes with touch controls and that 3rd sensor.
If it's new then it's for yourself to decide, at RRP id say the Rift, you get the better controls, the 3rd sensor is cheaper than the DTS.
