[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Good to hear from one of our European "astro cousins". Your blog is a goldmine of information!
I am sure that you are right about no infrared-optimized CCDs "within sane prices", but then some of us spend so much money on our hobby that our wives (or husbands) may question our sanity!
(galaxy morphology benefits from longer wavelength imaging, so "maybe I burn down the house for the insurance money" to get NIR CCD)

Steven's images of NGC 7793 are a good illustration of one of the principal advantages of near-infrared imaging;

Sbc to Sd - type galaxies contain a lot of dust and star-formation activity and OB stars that might just be a transient state in the evolution of a galaxy, and this extreme population one material only contributes a small amount to the total mass of a galaxy.("somewhat like the icing on a cake")
By minimizing the influence of dust and OB stars in astronomical imaging of galaxies, near-infrared imaging can better show the underlying structure of spiral arms and bar structures, which are often clearly imprinted in the old & mass-dominant stellar population.
Some galaxies (e.g. NGC 253, NGC 2903) contain such a heavy dust distribution, and/or such a chaotic structure of dust and OB stars, that it is impossible to discern the overall structure of the galaxy without using NIR imaging.

cheers,
Mad Bad galaxy man

In Sd galaxies such as NGC 7793 and NGC 300, the spiral structure is usually low contrast and/or chaotic, and the HII regions and OB stars can be distributed in a
highly entropic manner; it is often hard to discern the structure of one of these galaxies without recourse to longer wavelength imaging (preferably at 2 microns or longer!!)

The nuclear star cluster in N7793 also is much more prominent in Steven's NIR image.