In the past, I was annoyed by Vega's heavy metal content. I would hope they've cleaned up their act, but for now I avoid their lineup.
Xymogen, LivingFuel, and Thorne offer similar products that combine mineral + vitamins + phytonutrients with vegetable protein, but boy are they expensive. As a cheaper alternative, I'd go with MRM's version.
Every now and then I get on a smoothie kick. It's often a useful way for me to break a fast with a post-workout superfood sort of smoothie bowl before my main dinner. While eating within a narrow time window, I often find it to be an easy way to digest a lot of plant matter and its a nice protein alternative to meat. I imagine it has some effect on blood sugar / insulin, since everything is in rapid-absorption form, but in this context of sitting down for a meal with a 2mmol+ ketone level and glycogen depleted muscles, it's probably insignificant or maybe beneficial. I usually use whey protein for my base protein to get the cysteine for glutathione, and the lactoferrin / other peptides for immune health -- it also offers a bit more of an IGF1 bump than vegetable proteins, which can be useful for cardiovascular + cognitive health. When I'm looking to tame the effect, I combine marine collagen peptides with the whey, essentially watering down the BCAAs / methionine.
I often throw in raw beet, carrot, parsley, ginger, watercress, moringa, cranberries, wild blueberries, ceylon cinnamon, or whatever I have at my disposal. When you look at those pre-made drinks by comparison, the amounts are usually pretty ridiculous (like "500 milligrams of parsley, 1.5 grams of carrot...")