I find ST2 to be expensive also, but not in license costs. The $60 is peanuts compared to the investment in changing my workflow, and the opportunity costs from that.
I’ve been using ST2 since October and I’m still not sure if it’s for me. It has its quirks, but I can live with them because it also has great features. The biggest thing keeping me on the fence has been the development lifecycle. It’s not OSS – fine, I don’t want to flog that horse again – but that does mean visibility into the product’s development progress is that much more important to me. Especially since it’s a one-man show. Yet there hasn’t been a blog post from the author since late July, and not even a “nightly” build since September.
This, to me, is why ST2 is expensive.