Well don't take my word from it. Back when I was getting my transmission built by TRE I was shooting the sh*t with Jon, and asked him his opinion on the matter. He said he wouldn't worry about the vr4 first gear in my case (full bolt on Evo 3 16g setup, mostly street driven).
Given that conversation, and the purely anecdotal evidence there aren't many people complaining from breaking vr4 1st gears, I would say it's ok to run a vr4 first gear.
Waiting to be proven wrong in 3...2...1... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif