Thanks for the links & info about the pansies, ZM!
It's not just pansies though. All of the flats of annuals, and some of the larger, individual plant pots have styrofoam. Buying a few flats of any kinds of plants to augment the landscape has become unacceptable to me now, where it used to be something I did once or twice a year, depending on funds.
Vermiculite collapses under the slightest pressure when wet, and would provide the opposite result vs. perlite. Less air in soil, more compaction, a recipe for "overwatering."