Is it £1100-1500 better? Not with my money but YMMV. Marketing and forums help make you think we need these things and if you don’t have the latest gizmos such as blackout free shooting then the gear is no good anymore, but that’s obviously not the case.
Sure the bells and whistles are nice and if we all had endless money then we’d all have the latest and greatest, but when we work hard for a living it’s a different prospect.
As for the topic of getting to know local stores mine used to be really good and I bought and sold a lot of gear with them but over the past couple of years they’ve been really shafting me with what they offer for my gear, and offer very little in the way of discounts and as a result I’ve started taking my business elsewhere and sold to places like
MPB. Shame really as it was always nice dealing face to face.