It just boils down to: what do you need? what do you want?
If you definitely need or want something that runs AmigaOS 4, then you have little choice. Yes, it's pricey but most of us can probably afford it. Surely less pricey and more potent than souping up your beloved 1200.
However, in the perspective of competition the already mentioned problems come up and it doesn't make too much sense to choose a SAM from a rational POV. Sorry. If you think it's your hobby and it's worth it: fine! I'm glad for you that you can get what you want, honestly.
Obviously there's only a few people out there making that choice, so hardware prices are not bound to drop unfortunately. IMHO it'd make a lot of sense to port AmigaOS to an affordable, available hardware platform ASAP. Be it a PPC Mac (which doesn't hold much of a future but is available used in numbers) or a bog standard, el-cheapo x86 board (see Amithlon, AROS).
