Yes the Instinct is similar to Sonic and the Spirit is more like Soul in terms of cell count and aspect ratio. I always said the Spirit has the edge on Soul v1 - it is after all a newer kite, then Soul v2 came out i think it is very similar to Spirit, but Spirit has a slightly more aggressive/resonsive edge, slighty higher AR and is slightly lighter, but very similar. In the same way I think the Instinct will be comparable with the Sonic v4. I remember having conversations with Soul v1 owners and I was saying I thought the Spirit fabric is better and that also makes for better flight characterists and launch/relaunch and hanging in the air, durability etc and a few Soul owners swore the v1 could not be improved and the fabric is perfect etc and then the SoulV2 came out... with all the things I said could be improved mostly based around the new fabric but with the same proven great design.
My thoughts on Sonic3 is they carried a few issues over from the VMG (they tried first to make it from Soul and it didn't work so they worked backwards from VMG) including folding/flopping whilst reverse launching and the kite being a bit tricky to tack and gybe (not for advanced riders/VMG people) and occasional tip-fold, sonic be tricky for people learning manouvres who tend to hang on the kite/bar which Sonic can respond badly to. The instinct has the most lift of any kite i have ever used, you almost have to be careful to not paraglide through tacks and if you mess one up you can just hang hard on the bar and limbo your way through without the kite doing bad things. For me being a beginner/intermediate racer and also using the instict with a free-ride foil and twin-tip and in the surf (small surf) its perfect. It is also crazy that with all that performace the Instinct is one of the most durable foil kites ever made. The fabric was developed with a Korean parachute textile manufacturing company called Myungin in close partnership with Gin Paragliders (also Korean) and was specifically designed for durability, non-porosity over time/washes and strength-to-weight. It turns out the Myungjin fabric is gradually taking over the gin gliders range starting with the tandem, then the paramoter wing but now also the performance gliders are moving to this fabric, and same for the Gin Kites range, Instinct is the first kite with myungjin fabric and Marabou v2 will be in same fabric, coming out soon. Others in the range may follow, possibly even the next version of the olympic race kite the boom for the next olympic cycle after paris 24. BoomV2 is made from the best race cloth available at the time of the current olympic quad lock-in before 2020 which is/was Porscher cloth from France.