OLEDs degrade faster and stronger than CRT or LCD. OLEDs have three major sources of degradation. The percentage of Vitas will good OLED screens are significantly decreasing.
* Burn in. Everyone knows about this, not a huge issue on most Vitas.
* Use degradation. Using the OLED panel will slowly cause it to become more dim, and each color dims at a different rate. Blue dims 10% by 1k hours, and by 10k hours you can expect half total brightness. The Vita was released 10 years ago, and many of them have seen thousands of hours of gameplay by now.
* UV exposure. UV radiation is damaging to OLED displays, even when powered off. Long periods of small exposure, even if kept enclosed in storage, can damage the display. For Vita displays this is the major problem. Vitas that were rarely used outside/near windows, and were stored in dark places will have the least amount of UV damage. All of them should be noticeably more dim than their time of manufacture if it were possible to compare side by side.
Ah yeah, i'm aware of OLED issues. But my Vita OLED shows none of these, save for some diminished brightness perhaps. But I only play them indoors anyway and honestly at this point, i've exhausted most of the library worth playing exclusively on the vita, and I have better emulation machines.
The OLED vita side by side with the non OLED is still my preferred display. You are right though, if you want to rack up thousands of hours and add another decade onto the decade already past, the LCD unit is the better bet.
I have two OLED Vitas, a beat up one I used for 10 years and a gently used complete in box I imported from Japan. I prefer the LCD, and have for several years. However this is only a recent development (3-4 years) when I noticed the LCD at max brightness was significantly better in bright conditions than the OLED was. I've checked some of my friend's OLED Vitas too, and none of them are nearly as good as they were in the old days. The hue shift on some of the screens is pretty noticeable.
Looking back the old screen was awesome. Going forward I think the LCD Vitas will be a better pick.
Have the OLEDs all started dying or something?