I'll stand up and say I STILL think it's situational, and sorta weak. I mean, if villages don't fit into my strategy, I'm really wasting a lot of tempo to buy this, so I probably really won't have that lead to try to end the game with.
I mean... the same applies to (most) villages in general. The utility of extra actions itself is naturally situation, you have to need it and build around it. Buying a $4 card you don't want for the bonus it has is not going to put you in the lead very often, no. I think that's in line with expectations.
At the end of the day for general purpose, that's what it is: a Village with a bonus. The card archetype is pretty well establish and not unusual. As far as general utility goes, think of it as a Worker's Village alternative.
As for being situation, I'm still not entirely sure we're on the same page. Riot-rush is a pretty consistent strategy that wins in a respectable number of turns, enough to consistently beat Big Money and many common mono-card strategies. Most boards will have a counter or three, but having rock doesn't nullify scissors into being a non-factor. It just means that people have to consider rock.
Like, if I open Village Riot, it's not uncommon for someone to respond with say Bishop on a board where Bishop might not otherwise be their first choice. That's interesting!
Having said that, the reason I really don't like the card is that it's most-of-the-time ineffectual, and when it is useful, it degenerates the game in a way. I mean, with remodel and salvager and apprentice, you're really paying a price to get that tempo. With this, you can do it at will.
Your comparisons with the listed cards make me think you are fixated on the Province depletion, which is sort of a red herring--just the minimum utility it brings to all decks: the power to "hammer" in a win. The $1 "bonus" you get with your Village.
It's similar to how the ability to trash the card with something like chapel for 2VP is a really tiny, token advantage. Like okay, that's cute and all (I once saw it win a close game that otherwise tied on Provinces) but it's not the central function of the card--just a novel way of using it.
If you were talking about Riot-rush being degenerate, I understand the worry as it was indeed a major design concern. Rushing strategies and mechanics that enable them are by nature prone to minimal gameplay. While shorter games will always have potentially fewer decision points, the two really key decisions at work (how many Village Riots to buy, how soon to trash Duchies) do vary non-trivially in response to both the board and player decisions. A couple playtesters were quite bad at playing the strategy, because they struggled with these choices. Others, like the guy I ran into, were quite good at it. I think if you play with it you will find the Rush strategy entertaining, magnitudes less algorithmic than something like Gardens+Workshop.
Edit:
Ah okay, I didn't really think of the power of trashing other village riots from the supply. That's interesting then. I do wonder though whether the card is too dangerous, since it's not altogether obvious to any of us here what the card is for.
Well, I think that guy is a little biased. He was the one who discovered the full extent that Warehouse synergizes with it, so he had a pretty memorable impression of the potential power level.
