That made for an interesting read Don. I guess it's one of those situations where you balance quality against efficiency, and each file format has its own place, but you have to understand what you're dealing with to make the best decision.
For example, for a wedding photographer shooting 15'' shots per wedding, and then printing them up to 8" x 1'" maximum, it would be overkill to convert everything to Tiff. A quality 1'-12 jpeg from the raw file will do fine in that situation. On the other hand a fine art photographer who is going to push and pull the file around further in PS and then print up as a 3'" x 4'" print is well advised to save every ounce of pixel data he can. It's just a case of learning what to use and when.
