Just got back from a quick overnight to New Orleans, and a few hours play at Harrah's. I was extremely disappointed to find that they have done severe downgrades on available VP.
At the $1 level I could only find one machine with 9/6 JOB. All the rest had been downgraded to 7/5. That's a new low for Harrahs, and I suspect the one 9/6 machine was a fluke..probably someone forgot to change it. All other games on the 7/5 machines appeared to be downgraded as well.
Now this was by no means a scientific survey - it's possible they have other machines at higher levels, and other games at higher levels too, but my overall impression was not good.
I guess the days of even halfway decent VP are gone for good, as heavy downgrades seem to be the rule at all the Harrah's properties I've been to recently.