Within months Logic Pro 8 came out and they simplified the GUI to be like GarageBand (and oh how all the "Pros" did moan...but only for awhile) and cut the price from $999 to $499. I jumped on it and never looked back.
Logic is the perfect comparison. Audio guys had the exact same reaction when Logic 8 and 9 first appeared - it seemed to look more like GB so they assumed it was a toy with features stripped out. In fact, it removed nothing and added quite a few features valuable to pros (and in later versions fixed a LOT of bugs). What's the old cliché about judging a book by its cover?