While I like the customization made available in many Stardock products, they are not things I would pay for. They allow to make your desktop and Windows in general look very cool, yes, but is it worth that kind of money? It's putting money into a purely aesthetic thing that only I will see. It's almost akin to paying $50 extra for the Aero feature on Windows Vista rather than using the 'classic' pre-XP look.
I want to use the Stardock customization products, I really do. I just can't justify to myself spending that kind of money on it.