I think you're missing the point of VTEC. A car that revved to 9krpm without vtec would be gutless below 5.5krpm. VTEC ensures that whilst you're pootling about around town its perfectly civilised round town, you dont have to move off at 3krpm in traffic to prevent stalling etc etc.
My car has a distant cousin of the VTEC system and works very well. I can cruise around with the engine totally relaxed - when I'm in a 30 zone I'm usually in 5th. But when I hit a NSL I can change down to 2nd/3rd and I can storm round to almost 8krpm to pick up the pace. Or I can just put my foot down in 5th and waft up to 60! As a result, even though the peak power is only 125bhp, because of the way its developed it's pretty rapid compared to similar cars.
And before you moan about forced induction being better, if you really want it you can step up to the supercharged version and have the best of both worlds.