Thank you all for the kind congrats. I'll share some thoughts about my new Peterson after spending some time with it yesterday.
A bit of history:
I have a small collection of basket pipes. The nicest pipe I've had up till now was a Savinelli Bing's Favorite. I smoked it for years and loved it, but it got broken and I never replaced it. Since that time I've mostly smoked an old Willard pipe that was my grandfather's from the 60s or 70s. It's actually a very good smoker and somewhere along the way I just got used to it being my regular pipe. I'm viewing this Peterson as being on the same quality level as my old Savinelli, so that's my only experience with "better" pipes.
I loaded up the Pete with some Stokkebye Nougat yesterday and it was a really great smoke. The taste was fuller and more flavorful than it is in the Willard. I could definitely tell it was the same tobacco but it was a better overall experience. It was not a night/day difference, but I can absolutely tell that a better pipe makes for a better smoke.
After some Nougat I loaded up some big jar vanilla blend. I don't smoke it much because it's not my favorite. It was slightly better in the Pete than the Willard, but it was still not great.
I'm mostly an aromatic smoker, so I can't ever see myself buying super high-end, boutique pipes: but I can see my collection growing with more pipes along the lines of Peterson, Savinelli, et al.