I tend to think that we're all driven by sound quality. As much as I love my SB Touch (and it does sound great), if the BDP-1 would substantially improve sound quality, I would be at least curious if not ready to buy.
But for me, having to run a long ethernet cable from my NAS upstairs to my audio system downstairs just isn't going to happen, which leaves a USB-based hard disk. James, is the sound quality of the BDP-1 from USB any different than via ethernet? Can USB really stream 24/192 adequately?
The lack of a built-in UI is a bit disconcerting, but then, technology marches on and sooner or later we'll all have iPhones, iPads or the equivalents readily available so that concerns me far less. But, is the BDP-1 just playing music out of the the file directory? What tools are provided for playlists, random play, by genre, search, etc? Like it or not, that convenience and functionality is hard to give up once you've had a taste of it.