Steeper learning curve for Vegas???

Hmmm, after working it for a couple of years I don't get that.

You drag and drop all your clips and it'll automatically set your cross-fades to whatever you set in the preferences.... then hit Render Movie and let it do it's stuff. I found it FAR FAR easier than Premeir. I can usually drop clips on the end of a movie WHILE it's previewing several seconds behind me so that I can tweak lengths and fades without stopping.

And as a musician, I really appreciate Vegas Platinum letting me use my audio VST plugins (not many editor will do that) to enhance the soundtracks. There are many thousands of free audio VST's on the web giving you a LOT of extra abilities. I would upgrade to the full Vegas package in a heartbeat if only Sony would roll in the MIDI capabilities of ACID so that I could do all my audio and video sequencing in one package....

Also, the included DVD Architect is incredible for making menu'ed DVDs.

Yeah, I'm biased but go over to Sony's site; they have a free demo you can try yourself....