My experience with Lutron has been different.  I'm a small one man shop, but do enough lighting control and shading business to be direct with Lutron.

My Lutron rep has passed a few leads to me and also shut down two homeowners (both were in the design industry) who were trying to circumvent local dealers and get a better deal direct.

I've heard of shady stuff going on in other markets, so maybe it's dependent on who the rep is, but my experience has been very good.  It takes some work to get started with Lutron, but one of the best things I've ever done for my business.

I think Vantage is a solid choice, but wanted to speak up and say that my experience with Lutron has been very different than some of you are stating.