meta_query for keys that aren’t yet set

That massive function was a bit scary, I got this working like so – with two arguments (that exclude the features)

$args = array(

    'meta_query' => array(
        'relation' => 'OR',
            array( // new and edited posts
                'key' => 'Set as Featured Post',
                'compare' => '!=',
                'value' => 1
            ),

            array( // get old posts w/out custom field
                'key' => 'Set as Featured Post',
                'value' => '1',
                'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS'
            ) 
        ),
    'posts_per_page' => 30

);