As Veeger says Maks are rather heavy scopes compared to the Celestron SCTs. Optically both are good but again that added aperture would help a bit. The big problem I see is the step down in aperture may be more of a problem than you expect. Try stopping down your 10 to 6" and see if you are happy with the brightness of the image. Image quality will suffer due to the too large secondary obstruction reducing contrast but look at the brightness and see if you can live with the drop.

In our club one of our experienced members got tired of hauling his 10" around and now does most of his viewing the the 9.25 NextStar on an alt azimuth mounting as it was far less hassle for him. The loss of light was minor and the high quality optics made up for it.

Over the years I've watched many of our older members go to smaller scopes as their main scope got too heavy. Usually that put an end to their viewing, they just couldn't go back down in aperture though our skies are far darker than yours.

Personally I've hated goto scopes as their computer systems drive me nuts. That said, I've found the Celestron's system far easier for me to use and it works more like I work. That doesn't mean that you'd see it the same of course!

There has to be astronomy clubs in your area. You'll likely find ETX and NextStar scopes there. A little hands on should decide the issue for you.

Rick