Filing a provisional, then a PCT, then the US application?

Interesting post here at patentlyoblog . The main point is about 3% of all recently issued patents were first filed as a provisional patent application, then one year later, a PCT international applicaiton was filed, then 18 months after that (a total of 30 months from the original provisional filing date), the patent applications were filed in the US patent office (technically they entered the National Stage in the United States, among other countries). On drawback is that the USPTO will not put your patent application into a queue for examination until 30 months after your priority date, hence your issued patent will basically be delayed by 30 months. A positive aspect is that you will have “patent pending” status for at least 30 months in the US, plus whatever time it takes for the USPTO to examine your patent application (could be 12 months or more).
Delaying an examination in the US for over 30 months may be good if your business plan only requires you to have “patent pending” status for your invention, especially if you believe that your invention may have a slim change of actually issuing into a patent due to similar prior art.