I only read the original post, so I appologize if other people have covered similar points.....
Firstly, from one side of the coin, sure, what you say is true enough, but you seem to be completely disregarding the fact that generally people dont expect custom chipset based amigas to compete in certain areas. Some people (myself included) enjoy working within those limitations. It's a challenge to see what results can be obtained with an old system. Especially one as flexible as the Amiga. Not only that but a machine, regardless of how powerful it is, is only as productive as the person behind the helm, and as dated as most of it is, a lot of classic amiga software can obtain good results, and as quickly as machines with hundreds/thousands of times the raw power.
Personally, besides 68k based systems Im predominately an AROS guy. Im interested in both MOS and OS4.x, but I dont have the hardware anymore. Have been verging on buying a mac and a license for MOS, but havent gotten around to it yet. After a while of using AROS (for no reason other than availability in the beginning) it becomes about the journey as much as anything. All slightly off topic, but written for the point of backstory.
My AROS machine is a Core2duo @3.86ghz + 1 gig geforce9600 gt + 2 gig dual channel ddr2@1066 is, in Amiga terms quite a hefty machine. Even in terms of modern pcs it's only a few steps behind the modern grade. With AROS I have access to 2d + 3d acceleration, better video player, better web browsing,... typically more up to date features. Despite this however I couldnt refrain from also installing amithlon/os3.9 as AROS, as much as I like it and see it as the likely "future" of amiga simply doesnt offer me things I like that an os3.x based machine does. It's more powerful for me because I know amiblitz and other 68k development tools better than I know c/c++ and amiga native apis, despite only giving me 40-50% the raw speed, and me having to use a much weaker video card (4 meg matrox g200 pci vs 1024 meg gf 9600gt pci express).
And perhaps a little ironically, I still find myself wishing I had a classic amiga instead as amithlon, while very good, still doesnt offer me the complete functionality of a real 68k amiga.
Anyway, I guess if there's a point it's just re-itterating, with a real example or 2, that it's not always about raw power and modern features.
Somewhat ironic though dont you think that a person using a 2nd hand mac, quite behind the times is having problems with people enjoying thier own old computers ?
