I don't want to go into the PP versus Discriminate debate again either, so I'll just keep it short and say my friend's Excalibur is not as deep in PP as it is in discriminate, just like my GT. What I can tell you is that more than likely you are suffering the same learning curve on pinpointing a target that I did with the Sovereign. To me it's NOT the same as the Explorers I've owned. Those machines were just plain out and out lousy and a hand held pinpointer was a must to recovery any kind of target at a reasonable speed. I had the Sunray probe on two of them I think and it was worth it to have one. With the Sovereign at first I thought it was just as bad and the same in respect to how the Explorer pinpointed, but after 4 or 5 hunts I realized it was different than how it worked on the Explorer. Being different meant learning to use it a different way, and luckily it also meant that it was better at pinpointing than my Explorers. Using the center of the coil I could get pretty decent accuracy on targets, with the exception of false coin hits off the side of iron. Until you learn those you'll dig a few empty holes. Even though pinpointing was pretty good with the 10" using the center of the coil, I found my 15x12 was laser accurate using the tip of the coil at the base of the "V". So, when I switched back to the 10" this week for the first time in months I was no longer happy with using the center of the coil. It just wasn't as accurate as my SEF and I wanted more. Tried the tip of the 10" and it doesn't seem to work. Way too hot. Tried the tail of the coil and it works just like the SEF for the most part. Maybe still not quite as percise but much more than I can do with the center of the coil. Now I'm finding my targets within the diameter of a pop can's bottom versus having to dig holes about as big around as a medium soup can.
Don't try to use PP on the Sovereign like on the Explorer. It gave me FITS until I learned otherwise. I was in the same boat as you for a while and really starting to wonder. Others may differ but at least for me until I learned that the technique was unique for both machines that's when things got much better, and it's now much more precise for me than I was able to do with the Explorer. I'd say the SEF is more accurate at PP than any coil I've used on any machine now, and I'd say PP on the 10" is as good as most other machines I've used. Just have to find which technique works best for you and learn it with practice. Some can hear the PP get highest more easily by using the center of the coil and prefer that. Others, like me, prefer to not hear PP react until it's right near the edge of the coil using the above methods. You just want to hear the first beginnings of the threshold start to react and then you know the target is right off the edge of the coil. How far is based on how deep and large it is, which comes with a little practice.
Then there's deep stuff that PP simply won't hear. When that happens I use discriminate to PP the target in the same fashion as above. It's a little different and I'm still learning it but it's decent and will improve with more experience. Just wiggle the coil over the target as you move the coil forward or backward (depending on which coil) and find it that way. Once done I go 90 degrees and re-do it to get even a little more precise. I'm still giving up on targets too that PP can't hear and are real deep but in a sea of trash where I can't seem to get right on them with PP in discriminate. That's rare because I don't like walking by a target, but if I've been up and down hills in the woods for 8 hours my will power is at it's limits and I'm not going to kneel down for 20 minutes trying to chase things down. On the other hand, in real heavy trash using discriminate might be the only way to PP a target, as PP will react with anything nearby and throw you off, where as discriminate will clue you off to which target you are after.
I would stick with it over your holidays and let us know how you went.Also i noticed that the other machines you have owned have display screens that help a bit by giving you target depth and and a rough idea of what you are looking for in the hole,it took me a while to learn the difference by sound only. 
