I feel that the advice in Thom Hogan's article is spot on, and it is nearly always correct to just skip over low-end stuff and go straight to the known-good quality solutions.

But it does depend a bit upon one's own needs, style, and budget. Here, I drool over carbon fibre tripods with luxurious 1-lb ballheads. But in reality, my photography is most often done while travelling, mostly on foot, and a tripod is simply too much bulk.

So while I do have a good tripod, it is heavy and suitable only for domestic travel (mostly by car). For overseas use I simply do without. Well, I do take a tiny (and excellent) table-top mini-Manfrotto with me. As such, I could never get enough value back from a $1000 system to warrant the cost.

Bummer, that, but c'est la vie.

Cheers
-ml