Well I certainly will not speak for others, but IMO the price is worth it.

My favorites in the new features category are...

Image Browser: You can see thumbnails of your images in any folder you select. To me this is a big time saver, and eliminates the need for a separate program to do this.

Level Adjustment Enhancement: With photographs the first thing I do is adjust the levels. The new features in this make color correction a snap at the same time you are doing your levels. Great feature if you need to edit a good deal of photos, or just want better control.

Healing Brush: They bill this as a clone tool on steriods, and it truly is.

New Brush Features: Still not Up to Painter, but a lot better. And you can combine two brushes at a time.

Bottom line is that the new features are all good. As to the price... I think you get a lot more with this upgrade than spending as much on plugin filters. If you are using a version earlier than PS 6 I would say go for it without question.