Yes, it is costumers choice. But with this kind of sales strategy, you lose costumers!!!
I must admit before HD2 came out most of the videos on YT and Vimeo were of very poor quality (some of them still are, I don't know what's with some people
), so it is revolutionary in this perspective.
HD2 brought tons of cash for GoPro. Im sure that HD3 BE did too, becuse it costs more and in fact quite a few HD2 owners switched to HD3 BE. Only than they realised that even with battery back pack the energy consumption sucks big time and the color balance in other than perfect light makes the shots worse than HD2 in many cases. It doesn't take very extensive testing to realise these two big faults!
I would say, that GoPro left room for another sales boost, just when new HD3 BE users got tired of it and started switching back to HD2 (I know some people that did). However HD3's resale value just droped to the ground. It is like a sick child. No one will want it.
On the other hand, how can you be sure HD3+ is OK. There wasn't any feedback on all of these issues (except personal fed.), than all of the suden it got fixed.
YOU LOSE RELIABILITY!
Hero is small and very convinient to mount with the two button operation and good to shoot those 3 m around you (if you set the angle right
). That's about it.
For the price of HD3 BE you get a camera with far better quality of pictures and videos, colour, brightness and contrast, many shooting options,... and water tight too. It's a shame we don't have free hands when kiting.
I don't know what is taking so long for other companies to come out with something usefull.