Ehhhh......? I don't follow the company enough to know the gossip side of things, what happened?
Yeah that's what I read too, sounds like it has an unique sound signature so some people keep it around for that.
This is my other concern, I generally like the "fun" sound. And I already have Lyr 3, so feel like there is a high chance that for my preference I might just like the Lyr 3 better.
From what I've been told, how old a tube is generally goes like this:
GT = older production
GTA = revised, later production, for the most part sounds like GT or GTA are both good
GTB = newer production, again, unofficially I've been told GT and GTA are better
So I don't know how accurate this is, also I've been told year of production year is important too, like shoot for 1950 ~ early 1960.
But then again shopping for NOS tube there's too many tell tales. I can't tell you "for sure" if you should follow something or not. It's a bit of hit or miss LOL. Also I'm still learning and is not an expert at this.
Best course of action is probably make a post in the Lyr Tube Rolling thread, and tell them your sound profile preference and see if anyone can steer you into the right direction.