Yes it's always good to have the best tools available, but most people have to work within their budget. Do you really need a $1,000 hammer to drive in a nail ??
The Mackie 8 bus was a big expense for me at the time, and has worked out great for me, and still is working out for me for the forseeable future. The size is perfect, not too big, not too small, tons of routing options. Like I've said, I use it for a keyboard mixer for my keyboards and synths, and I also use it to control my 5.1 surround system. I also have a DA-88 all connected and ready to use if I need it, so the Mackie is like the grand central staion of my home studio. It doubles as a very nice patch bay, as I rarily have to change cords around. It really does connect everything in my studio together nicely. It's also connected to my 1010LT card, so everything in my studio is also connected to my computer. Soooo if I want to route something from a DA-88 into Audition 2.0, I just have to press a couple of buttons and I'm there. I also have soft synths on the computer that will play out thru the Mackie into my 5.1 system...Using the MIX B mixer, I can route anything into my headphones, at any level I want, so having the Mackie 8 bus, for me, ties everything together quite nicely.