Alan,
I don’t see much point to compare a 1.200 U$ with a 20.000 U$ application. I like the approach of Apple: Good affordable tools for everybody.
I don’t understand why, living in Europe, I have to pay the Autodesk software almost a100% more expensive than living in some other countries. I can not even up-date the Combustion 3 that I boutht 3 years ago while I was working in the USA. A bit of the same its happens with Adobe.
Rafael