Zealand wrote:
.......I must be missing out on something.
Reply: No, you just have not caught the Amiga insanity disease yet. Are you sure you want to get caught up in something as addictive as the "Amiga Phenomenon"? It can be veeeeeeeeery costly over time.
All seriousness aside, welcome to Amiga.org. The greatest Amiga site on the planet.
If money is tight and you don't have particular requirements for the AGA chipset display resolutions, an A500 can be found very cheap and will run the majority of that software base you mentioned.
Good luck.