The Oasys is quite user friendly but not as friendly as it can or should be. My guess is that Korg released the Oasys a bit early to try and recoup some R&D dollars and over time they will finalize the control surface to be more intuitive. Whether or not it improves greatly is yet to be seen but I don't think Korg is going to abandon the Oasys like Yamaha did with the 9000 Pro or Technics did with their KN line. Is it worth $8500, that I'm not convinced of yet but its certainly a fine instrument and in a class with only a few other keyboards made. The sounds easily rival the Triton Extreme, Roland XV and G series, Yamaha Tyros and Motif, GEM, Ketron, and just about any other synthesizer or arranger keyboard made. The Wersi and Lionstracs are the only keyboards I know of that can compete on a level with the Oasys and unless you are running GIGASAMPLER with very large sound files, you just aren't going to get the type of sound quality these keyboards can offer. Its one thing to hear an MP3 file of these keyboards online, in person its a whole different story and a real eye opener. The incredible sound quality definitely separates these keyboards from the others.