Quote - "before I purchased the Mac I checked:  a) building my own 8-core PC,  b)  A build from Dell, c)  A build from HP.  The Mac was ~ $1000 USD cheaper than either the equivalent Dell or HP, and even beat-out my Newegg DIY rig."

Of course, the MacBook Pro can be a good choice in terms of value for money depending with what you compare it. I just googled for "mac pro versus pc" and the very first hit in google's list delivered me this:
http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/3/3/apple-mac-pro-vs-windows-pc-4-way-comparison/1/
In this guy's comparison, he made a DIY PC more powerful than the Mac, and saving 1000 pounds in the process. So, it seems to me that your comparison was not the best...

Quote - "Since the Mac hardware is pretty much the same as a Windows PC, what is so silly about buying a Mac Pro that can also run almost any OS?"

Why is that an advantage? Most people just need one OS.

Quote "The Mac OS side has much better movie making capability out of the box, as well as music, and a slew of other quality applications."

What has that got to do with a "Vue computer", the original post?

Quote - "Read the Consumer Reports articles on computer owner satisfaction, reliability, and service response."

Haha! Is that why you run Windows on a Mac?... :-)