Power Meters / Powermeters (SRM, Powertap, Quarq, Ergomo, Vector, Stages, power2max, P2M, 4iii, InPower, Cinch)

Old age doesn't get you points it just makes you scared of change.

No, it makes me sceptical about some of the more inflated claims, because I'm old enough to have seen them before.

As far as I can see, once you drill down through all the pseudo-science and TLAs which are mostly marketing, there are a few simple things which people are trying to measure with power meters.

1. Is this thing faster than that thing?¹
   
2. Am I faster now than I was last time I checked?²
   
3. Am I training enough?³
   
4. Am I training too much?³
   
5. Can I sustain this pace until the end of this race?⁵
   
   

¹A power meter is pretty much indispensable, field testing is the final confirmation of the effectiveness of CFD and wind tunnel work, and absolutely requires accurate measurement of the input power.
²A power meter is the correct tool to answer this question, although on its it won't tell you whether you were actually under the same stress for each test.
³Power metering is getting increasingly distant from what you actually want to measure, which is your physiological response to training.
⁵The closer you get to your actual capability, the less likely it is that your power meter will give the correct answer.