You know all very valid points and years ago I was of the same...

You know all very valid points and years ago I was of the same opinion... I am however no longer support this argument... reasons:
1. Capital raised through shareholders takes weeks and weeks...
2. Share price never moves as market remains aware of ongoing capital raise... I consider it as an issue while buying any stock doing a raising.
3. Retails shareholders do a lot of calculations... and even making a 2% gain becomes their priority... hence selling continues by them to grab any premiums which ultimately kills the share price.
4. This whole saga leaves takes the share price either to the issue price or below it.
5. Lower share price raises the concern hence holders don't participate thinking they can buy the heads cheaper or at the similar price from the market so they don't participate.
6. This leaves capital raising non - complete hence requires short fall.
7. Short fall takes time and only being done followed by announcement or a pump... the issue of short fall straight away gets dumped hence hurts the stock reputation...

So all in all, raising through Sophisticated investors is quite often less time consuming and cost effective. Also once the newly issued shares are soaked, stock is free to run. Also raising price puts a strong floor under the share price which acts as a strong support. And most importantly, if wpi might be able to secure a deal soon enough, capital raise is not a hanging concern just like VTX...

This is just the general observation and might not apply to all stocks...
cheers