Jesse Screed
Well. I decided to take some of my own advice that I often dispensed to others.  I am going to explore the tools I already have, and eek out the last drop of blood from them all, because they all obviously have great features and nuances that make them special too.  But I do feel a little left out; probably because i can't pump myself up knowing I have a shiny new toy, and hang with the cool kids on the playground
 
So, I didn't make the purchase for SD 3.  I now have an extra $300 to buy food and gasoline.
 
jqs

Good choice IMO. You have a decent tool in AD2 and the average listener isn't going to know the difference between AD2, SD3, etc.

As a fan I'd  say ad2 is perfectly fine cause your style choices and general bent don't really rely on acoustically excellent drums. Sd3 has a bit more depth in the sound field than ad2, that's about it. Ad2 is a great tool especially if you grunge things up, funk grunge, Jessie style.
 
When you do your unplugged album, go sd3. 👽
-Tom

Thanks!

Jesse Screed
Well. I decided to take some of my own advice that I often dispensed to others.  I am going to explore the tools I already have, and eek out the last drop of blood from them all, because they all obviously have great features and nuances that make them special too.  But I do feel a little left out; probably because i can't pump myself up knowing I have a shiny new toy, and hang with the cool kids on the playground
 
So, I didn't make the purchase for SD 3.  I now have an extra $300 to buy food and gasoline.
 
jqs

Food and gasoline is over rated.

Agreed. As a longtime habitual dieter, I can tell you that one unexpected benefit is more money left over for sample libraries. 
 
Gas, that's another challenge altogether. Consider bicycling and walking for short trips - although it's kind of hard to carry your new amplifier home on a bike. Or even a cup of coffee, for that matter. 

I have EZD2, AD2 and SD3 (upgraded from 2). My choice is SD3, for me it's easy AND handy, very handy. Scalable, undocking windows, grid editor, tweakable  into depth, the standard library delivered with SD3 is excellent. The grid editor is grouped by instruments, e.g. Hats, Toms, Snares etc. each in one folder, never see this before.

BassDaddy
Food and gasoline is over rated.

I don't agree! Who WTF needs food?!

The grid editor in BFD3 allows you to collapse or view all articulations for each instrument but its things like organization of MIDI files and tap to find that I covet in SD3.  I can't imagine liking the samples more than BFD3, but the way SD3 pulls all of this together is making it tough to wait for any deals on the upgrade.

I recently tried out SD3's drum substitution feature for the first time. It was a little obtuse, but the results were very good.
 
I am currently remixing my band's old demo tracks, which were not well-recorded (I wasn't in the band at the time). In particular, the drums sounded like oatmeal boxes. SD3 let me turn it into a first-class drum track. (Now, if only there was some clever tool for fixing flat-topped vocals.)

awake1994

BassDaddy
Food and gasoline is over rated.

I don't agree! Who WTF needs food?!

I thought that was what I was saying.