I think there should be a 'visual' voice in this discussion too,
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Visual allows me that 'instant gratification'. As you've suggested John, there is also the $ aspect. I don't want or need to spend the big bucks to get me what I want. Sure I've spent some money, I have 6 scopes. Yet these all provide me with different visual experiences to satisfy the my mood or the conditions of the night. Moon is out, great, I pull out my 5" SCT. Dark site and a spectacular night, I may choose my 8" f/4 for the wide field view.
Time is also a factor. When the kids are awake, I'm with them. When they're in bed that may only give me 1 to 3 hours obs. time. That's plenty for me to get a sketch or two done. I also am not at all interested in sitting at a keyboard for this hobby. It's not what I signed up for.
Then there is the challenge of pulling as much detail as possible out of a scope. To see so 'obviously' a faint galaxy that your mate can't is a quiet thrill of mine,
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Then there is also that magic of the photons of distant objects being ALL MINE.
Oh, there is also the DIY aspect for me. Of my 6 scopes, 3 I built myself, to MY specifications, and MY needs.
Mind you, I can appreciate the pictures that are produced by the imaging devotees. The quality of these images show how far technology has come that now many folks who would not have look to astronomy as a hobby now can. I just don't see it as the be-all-and-end-all in astronomy, but it does have its place and in ways you wouldn't have thought of, even in the visual vein:
Have you ever tried to show the Moon through a scope to a kid who is in a wheel chair and is unable to crane his head to see through an eyepiece? That can only happen with a camera in a scope and a monitor. I was brought so close to tears by four kids this way a little while ago. Four hours was spent this way with just two objects, the Moon and Saturn on the grounds of a children's hospice. Four of the most amazing hours I've had in astro, and not an eyepiece in sight. Visual and imaging together.