Tony,
Here are some cold, hard FACTS that defend the price of the TC.
(NO opinions expressed here)

1)Phantom power
2)Dedicated on/off switch for main signal
3)individual level for EACH harmony voice
4)individual pan for EACH harmony voice
5)internal mult effects that can be routed many ways - even to an external source
6)dedicated fast edit buttons
7)octave shift for EACH harmony voice
8)gender change for EACH harmony voice
9)quieter output, extensive EQ
10)AC power cord - NO WALL WART

These are the first 10 that come to mind, without any bias. If you add personal taste into the mix - the list will go on.

I'm not taking any offense here either - just defending my original point of why I thought it to be a superior product to the rest of the pack. I stand by that asessment today. It's worth every penny for the extra quality and flexibility you get. The new models seem to have much the same sound with fewer features.

Speaking of "finesse" .... there are many examples of fine instruments that required a steeper learning curve:
Lets start with the mother of all programming nightmares:
The original DX7.
The PA80 is no walk in the park at first.
The Triton is very sophisticated too.
Roland JV series .....
There are TONS of very fine products that require a substantial investment in learning the ways around it before you reap the benifits of it's performance.

When I make the demo, I'll make identical phrases on the Digitech AND the TC so you can see what I mean. Nothing I've posted so far really shows off the harmony the way I use it at work. The track on my web page of "She's no lady" is recorded live in the X1 using the internal unit. My outboard gear has a much stronger impact.