According to my understanding, with 295$ you can:

1. get now 7.5, with the 7.5 -> 8 step for free, or...
2. jump from 7 -> 8 later on

which is not a bad proposition, money-wise.

The problems are:

1. features are being added just as reaction to other products and not as result of an indipendent product strategy and
2. you have to trust E-On word; as there is no signed contract between them and us about this issue, this offer is obviously open to Darth Vader like hope-I-won't-change-again-the-deal revisions later on.

Bye...

P.S.: today I visited a page in which a saw a video which made me wonder whether we are all like owners of horse-driven carts discussing about the merits of the different horses while a Ford T is passing along the road...

GIMP 2.7.4, Inkscape 0.48, Genetica 3.6 Basic, FilterForge 3 Professional, Blender 2.61, SketchUp 8, PoserPro 2012, Vue 10 Infinite, World Machine 2.3, GeoControl 2