Drawbacks from the unitary patent
Higher annual costs are to be expected if less than four countries would have been validated.
There is no sucessive dropping of national parts.
A request for validating a European patent as Unitary Patent occurs within one month upon decision to grant. In case of grants in the near future, it is advisable to think of filing divisional applications. The EPO enables to stay the decision to grant upon submission of the German ratification certificate (approx.in May/June 2022).
On the plus-side: There is no restriction of double patenting.