I agree...
I have yet to see a 2.0L owner that used nitrous for a prolonged period that didn't have some kind of damage, most being expensive and terminal...
You can do nitrous correctly, but it involves a lot more than just the bottle and plumbing...In the end you will be approaching the price of an entry level turbo kit, and still have to deal with filling the bottle and only using it 10% of the time you drive...
I don't see the advantage of an SC on a protege as of now...If a company would release a bolt-on kit that gave 4-5psi for around 2200-2500 that might be ok...but it still would not give the gains of an entry turbo kit...Most of the current kits give very good throttle response and linear power...also with modern turbochargers, lag is not much of a problem anymore as long as it is right for the application...
It just comes down to research and the right parts...A giant T-88 will be in "lag mode" all the time on an FS...but a T-25 spools fast enough that you barely notice it...and you are not fixed with what boost you get with a Turbo