Never heard of the "chip" falling off. I've had my I75m's for over a year and the chip part is still fine. (what a fun ski to open up on and ski fast with!)
We did have one in the group at big sky experience a pre-release on Atomic bindings. But he was slightly shimmed. Scuttlebutt was they do have a general problem though.
I have atomic and head. My atomic gs-9 and my head xrc 1100 both rode on a roof rack in some nasty salt spray. By the time I had gotten home the atomics had some rust to deal with while the head was still shinny. Don't know what if anything that says about the quality of metal used in those too skis.
As far as PMTs technique and equipment goes, I would think the boots and boot setup is far more of a factor than which ski one chooses to use. The only think ski wise I can think of is a ski that pressures and bends progressively is more versitile than a stiffy ski. Since PMTS at it's higher levels is an excellent way to achive high levels of carving, a progressive ski becomes a better tool to use pressure to change turn shape than some other choices.