Casey, I cant speak for James, but I know we both like a lot of the subjects that the Japanese companys do, but for me, one of the biggest reason I do buy a lot of Japanese kits is, for the most the part, they do subjects that are with in 30 years old (my era if you will), vs Revell/Round2 with mostly older subjects .
As for the P/E issues, I probably wouldn't spend the extra on a kit if it had it, I really dont like P/E all that much, at the most, I like P/E brake rotors and thats about it, maybe grills to.