T-bird, not sure where you get that info from ................have you owned one? I had a 2005 procraft 210 sp with a 2005 Verado 250 horsepower and it was a beast of a motor. jumped on plane, top speed gps was 73 mph. I sent my PCM off to simmon motorsports in California for around 800 bucks and got it tuned to 320 HP. Never ran top speed with the tuned PCM but I could tell it would scoot. There are original verados out there with 4000+ hrs (go to veradoclub.com) Those are the peps who really know the motor................you have to remember Verado came out when 4 strokes were not popular with freshwater fisherman most said they would never run a 4 stroke motor, now we know 4 stoke is the future. The biggest complaint was 605lbs back in the day. Yes that's a lot weight but no difference in 100 lbs of extra tackle a person wont ever use in a day of fishing. Or 10' talons hanging off the back. Or guys who are overweight by 150 lbs.
.........Get the motor checked out by a verado tech.............if its good by him then don't hesitate to buy it. The fly by wire shifting, power steering, and ultra quiet just to name a few. It was a motor way ahead of its time. Don Weed over at BBC on the mercury forum is a verado guru ask him his opinion of the motor, he will shoot straight with you the good , the bad and the in between.
Good luck !