Is a Redding competition seating die just their regular seating die with a micro adjuster on top?

It has a sliding sleeve inside which aligns the case with the stem and supports the case walls and neck during seating.  The micrometer top is top-notch, too.

A sliding spring loaded guide sleeve.  I've tested it by intentionally putting a bullet in at a 25 degree angle off axis and slowly raising the ram until the bullet nose just makes contact with the seater then reverse the ram.  The bullet is always perfectly aligned in the case mouth but not at all pressed into the neck.  It really works.

Good to know thanks

You are confusing the seaters.

The competition seater die has spring loaded seating guide and a larger Micrometer Top.  These have a part #beginning in 55XXX lie 55111 223 Rem.  You can get VLD seating stems as replacement.

The micrometer seater plug is what Redding puts on their standard seater die in their premium die sets. This die is not available as a stand alone die.  And, it is not as flexible when seating VLD bullets.  You would have to buy the VLD Seater Plug.