As long as you are just doing eye-only observing, a Dobsonian mount is all you need (although an equatorial mount is very convenient). You can save your money and put it into aperture.
But as soon as you want to do astrophotography, your costs skyrocket. You need scope, EQ mount with smooth tracking, camera equipment, and nowadays computer equipment to run it all.
And yes, don't forget the manhandling problem. A scope that's difficult to use will not get used often.
Cassegrains and the related types are good compromises. They are smaller and lighter, so they don't need big mounts and can be dragged out at just about any time. You can even get nice carrying cases that aren't much worse than small suitcases. But you will have to pay for the convenience.
Personally, my dream scope has always been the Parks combo newtonian/cassegrain. Two scopes in one. Whee! But ouch, the price. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img]
http://scopecity.com/hit.htm