Actually, PoppaGator, the HD-7 I played was ticketed around $4,500 and the salesperson said they's knock another $1,000 off. Not that I have $3,500 to spare either...

The reason I was so impressed with the thing is that, in my fingerpicking, I do tend to treat the G as a bass string. It's courtesy of being self-taught and having a bunch of banjo stuff pollute my guitar style. On banjo, the G string is a bass string. In fact, playing that HD-7 made me more aware of that quirk in my playing than I had been before. I guess it's that close fit to my style that made it so impressive to me. But I can easily see how players who don't have a "G string heavy" style wouldn't get much advantage from the instrument at all.