Originally posted by aritra I heard the center column is not entirely removable
True, or false, depending on how you look at it. "removable center column" is not, per se, a feature that should or should not be desired. Ultra compact tripods are not designed the same way as "regular" tripods. This means you can't pull out the center column completely. On the other hand, you can unscrew it and attach the head directly to the "spider" part of the tripod, which achieves the same purpose:
Originally posted by aritra no rotation of center column
Why would that be desirable? It just suggests that the center column can skip and rotate as you tighten stuff. That's why good tripod heads have a panning plate.
Originally posted by aritra no spiked feet
That's a feature found on many cheap tripods, indeed (my Dolica has it). Based on my experience, spiked feet that can be hidden underneath rubber (typically by screwing the rubber part up or down, hiding or showing the spikes) is the perfect dirt and sand magnet. It takes forever to clean them, and in particular sand can get into the grooves and make the system hard to move.
Much better to have good, non-slip rubber feet.
Originally posted by aritra with bags the feet bends
It depends on the weight. It IS a lightweight tripod, not made for extra-heavy loads. I can make mine buckle if I want, of course, but I'll need to attach a lot more weight than required for that.
Originally posted by aritra I recently rented a basic vanguard CF tripod
"Vanguard", "carbon fiber" and "basic" do not go together
Such a tripod is likely to be excellent (Vanguard make great products) but it will be far from cheap. Nor is the T-025X cheap. My point is exactly this : you get what you pay for. I'm not saying everybody should get the T-025X, just that almost everyone buying cheap legs and heads end up buying more expensive stuff in the future.