I think Stan was well aware of Tesla, Stan's video "It Runs On Water" talks about Tesla and other Inventors. Why would Stan mention them in his video if he didn't study them?
Also, normal circuit analysis will not work on Tesla coils. The voltage output of a Tesla coil is not modeled mathematically with conventional analysis. To do it properly to have to use Maxwell's (Original) equations. This leads me to think that the VIC can also not be modeled properly with conventional analysis, and would require a rigorous approaching using the Original Maxwell equations, the Resonant Charging Chokes are not simple inductors, just like a tesla coil is not a simple step up transformer.
In the Independent report Stan points back to Maxwell's equations when talking about the relation to the Thermodynamics, back then Maxwell used the concept of aether, which is now called the Vacuum, or in Stan's own terms, Universal Energy...
It you want to look at What tesla was doing, I think he was trying to pull energy out of the earth, and not so much the aether, (maybe he was in other systems, but the wardencliff system was about the earth, I think) The earth's magnetic and electric fields oscillate naturally at 7.83 Hz, By building tuned coils to resonant with the earths natural frequency then you can use the energy in the earths magnetic and electric fields just like any other magnetic or electric field in any other conventional circuit....
