Here's what I tell customers that are looking at the NRS and Trance;
The NRS is a very efficiant bike. In fact it is one of the only bikes that is truly bob-free when set up correctly. I explain that to set it up properly means no sag and that pedaling causes the shock to extend. With no sag there's no extetion and hence, no bobbing.
This means that you have a harsher ride though because it is effectively oversprung for the travel. Ultra-efficiant, but sacrifices some ride qualities.
With the Trance you have a parallel linkage system that lets the designers get the exact wheelpath they are looking for, while it's easy to lump parallel linkage bikes into catagories, the exact placement can cause very different results, like mimicing an FSR wheelpath, or VPP, or whatever they are trying to get out of it. The Trance is going to pedal great, AND it is going to be more active and suspend better due to it operating with a proper spring rate for the given amount of travel. A decent 3" travel bike may suspend better than the 3.75" NRS, and a 4" trance that uses sag like a normal bike is simply going to suspend better, so you get great pedaling and great suspension, although a tiny amount of bob may be possible.
As I got to try and watch the Reign 1 today, I can attest that the pedaling claims of the meastro are pretty much true. No noticable bobbing, very "nuetral" suspension that doesn't seem to be affected much by your pedaling inputs. The rear suspension seems to live up to the hype, and as far as all-out suspension ability (ability to absorb the variations in the trail, bumps, etc) it is excellent.
The NRS is a little lighter, and in all out efficiancy it's going to be hard to beat a system that tries to extend when there is no sag, but it sacrifices the ride and a 4" bike with 1" of sag is going to ride a lot nice and suspend nicer, which is what the Trance will do. IMO the tradeoff of the Trance is well worth it.
I don't see too much advantage to running an NRS over a hardtail, let along a hardtail with a good suspension seatpost. An NRS is not going to excell in the real rough stuff, and it's going to be best where a hardtail would be best, so except for racing, I don't see much use for the NRS and while I wouldn't push a customer to not buy it, I'd definitely want him/her to be sure what they were getting it for.