Well the expense is part of the reason I'm covering D-STAR so much. If you're in the market for a new radio the more information you can gather about the options the better! Yes the cost is higher than for just an anologue radio but you get the new digital mode as well as analogue if you buy the option with the radio, or you can add it later if you buy a compatible set (some people still ask of my new radio "Is Digital is all it does?" and seem surprised that I am talking to them using it on 2M or 70cm!).
Also it is exciting to be "in on the bottom rung" with something new in the Amateur Radio world. Experimenting with range, data transfer, image transfer and other tests and experiments which, after all, is what Amateur Radio is all about.