Since nobody answered this, perhaps I can answer some of my questions myself.
Overall, Vertical Running profile seems nearly identical to Trail running, except for data screens.
When it is synced to Strava it shows in Strava as trail running
When running, the laps data screen shows power for mile splits.
At the end of each lap the summary shows horizontal speed in miles per hour rather than vertical speed, which is odd and inconsistent. Also, why is it speed rather than pace?
VO2max does get estimated the same way as during running
This profile is supposed to focus on vertical speed, but I found it to be super unstable and difficult to read. Even at a very gentle uphill, at nearly walking speed the vertical speed exceeds 1000 ft/hour, so 4 digits, and becomes difficult to comprehend because it keeps changing every second +/- 200 ft/hour even when moving steady or just standing in one place, so the last two digits are just random noise.
