True, but they are significantly faster as well. (more than twice the read speed IIRC) \:\)
Not possible, I'm afraid. SATA2 tops out at 300MB/sec theoretical, or around 250MB/sec in real-life. The Vertex drives achieve darned close to that speed, so doubling it would be difficult.
Even on smaller blocks, they're neck and neck, always within 10-20% of each other.
Your earlier Anandtech article seems to show a much bigger difference then 10-20% at the lower block size tests.