Yep, my xpg2 was from pretty early on after the g2 introduction. Its a solid led, very nice neutralish white tint, pure white with no serious tint difference between the hotspot and spill. Gets very mildly "goldeny" at lower drive levels. Very nice LED all around.
Interesting to hear about the change to the die. Tint shift seems to be a very cree problem, I see more people complaining about cree led's than osram or nichia. Interesting. Does shaving the dome down help at all, in your experience? I plan to try dedoming bith the xpg3's and 219c's that I have on order, and comparing them to my original xpg2.
I sent my Ra to Milkyspit years ago. He removed the original osram golden dragon, and bored the heatsink area to fit a 10mm mcpcb, so Im hoping to keep this baby upgraded for a long long time.
I haven't dedomed the LEDs in question much, have done with the XPG2 but not really a fan as I'm more into nice beams and quality light than gaining throw etc. Not that certain dome mods can't be beneficial, I just haven't delved into it much.
As far as dedoming a 219C, I think they're better left alone particularly with high CRI variants. I'm not sure that 219 or XPG3 dedome that well or easily either.
It's a shame about the die change on the XPG2, there's pics and write ups on forums if you care to look into it.
I agree with your write up on the old XPG2 R5 3C and also find them nice. I tried a similar spec current XPG2 but in S3 and the tint wasn't nice at all to me (may have been 3D from memory) but either way the old R5 3C seemed to be a fair sweet spot.
It should be a reasonably simple process to remod your light but in my opinion your old XPG2 is still worthy for time to come unless of course you're looking for a CRI boost then I'd look at the 219B or C at around 4 to 5000K you'll likely enjoy.
I still reckon your light sounds nice as is though.
I'll add what I found made the XPG3 work really nicely (any LED that needs a bit of smoothing out for that matter) was to use a heavy OP reflector and/or diffuser lens. Like I said, I was content with a 5000K high CRI XPG3 behind a Ledil boom reflector. Obviously this cuts your throw and gets much more into flood territory.
On the other hand the 219C should play pretty well generally. I've tried a couple that were of the 70 and 80 CRI but by far my favourites are the 90 CRI versions (I've tried 2700, 3000, 4000 and 5700K In high CRI).
Check out the 219B as well if CRI is of interest. Pretty well any B or C is likely to have a nice smooth tint.