[JA]

I can appreciate the numerous advantages of both reflectors AND refractors and that these differ with focal length and that, as has already been stated it is a matter of Horses for Courses, .......

BUT, Please. Please don't castigate me for this..... As beautiful as I genuinely find many of the images from reflector telescopes, due to their large aperture and the low noise capabilities they open up, I find the diffraction spikes, from those with spiders/etc, highly distracting. Once my eyes picks one up, I just look for more. To me it makes the image much less natural, dare I say, fake. I would take a little Chromatic Abberation over diffraction spikes (in fact a sharp spike can sometimes contains contains some by way of a spectrum, depending on the sharpness of focus/target).

As an aside-
To the expert image processors out there in the community - Is there a Diffraction Spike Reduction/Elimination tool out there ? ( Similar to the Red-Eye Tool in portrait photography). If not, Software Engineers - there is your next $1,000,000 money-making project - In the software, hover an adjustable diameter target circle or target 4 spike tool over the 4*-spiked diffraction spiked star and select "DESPIKE", which could have a programmable strength/size parameter.
(*- or more, or less depending on spider)

Having said all that I look forward to purchasing/building a reflector scope one day. I think it would use a 90 degree 2 leg spider to minimize spikes. A 1 legged spider looks even more unnatural - at least on the various simulations I've seen.

Best
JA