Guy, sorry to hear of your lighting malaise. Hope things get worked out.
On the pricing thing.....one of the reasons I do peg a bit lower on the S2 is exactly what you guys are describing.....the need for at least a second body. If the S2 would work absolutely flawlessly, never fail, never break, etc., then it might be worth it to pony up extra bucks for it. However, we all know that is a dream, so one must have back-up. The options are all somewhat expensive: have a second or third body, which is what may be needed if one is only shooting with that camera; have a back-up system, but let's not be fooled with how uncheap this could become when you take into account glass for that back-up system....even a lesser costing 35mm DSLR kit; return fees to client and just hope you do not lose any more business, or worse yet, get sued for contract breach or something on an assignment. None of those look terribly attractive :-(
So, until the S2 can prove itself to be absolutely bulletproof whenever used or needed, folks using it for earnings will have to have a second (or third) body, or support another system. Hence my bit of "low balling" in the price....I will either have to get a second body, or second system. The second body, like with the M8, seems a more likely path, so it has to be somewhat more affordable. As Guy mentions, even if there are plenty of rental places with spares to use, if they are not open when you need them, it helps little. I have always believed in going into assignments fully prepared, and that means carrying more kit than I want at times, but I know it is there and ready to go if needed.
So, that 5K difference in pricing can matter a lot more than one may think at first, especially in these rather difficult times. Once things improve, and once there is some used gear on the market, then maybe the price could become more elastic and creep up with demand, but for openers, it has to be more affordable considering what may be at stake for lots of folks.
Sorry for the somewhat repeating rant, but these sorts of things do worry me.
LJ