I first dabbled with Waves with just a couple of their cheaper plugins and then a bundle and finally a crazy cheap upgrade to Mercury.
I've only once had an issue which was down to user error during an upgrade but an email that was answered overnight set me up properly.

So I have no horror stories only a good experience. Add to that, a couple of new plugins added to the Mercury pack. If there are significant new features when my WUP expires I'll see then. If I choose not to the software still works like everything else, frozen in time if I don't update.

I remember reading an interview with Chris Lord Alge and when he was asked about his range of Waves CLA plugins he admitted to using them I was a bit skeptical. I mean what else is he going to say right?
Then we have the experience here of Craig A offering up his series of fx Chains and he says its to make things quicker for him to setup. I now give much more credence to CLA's use of his own quick fix plugins. I mean if it does what it's supposed to do and sounds good, it is good.

I like what you said mudgel. If Craig A. Or CLA or JJP or Chuck Ainley or Randy Staub want to share presets with me, some free, some paid, I'm in. I saw a video where Dave Pensado uses Waves One Knob series and one of his favs is Softube Saturation Knob. If fast and easy is good enough for them... 

mmm ... that Softube Saturation Knob. And it's quite free nowadays. Once downloaded, you only have to trash all but one of the Softube bundle and you're set.

BassDaddy
I like what you said mudgel. If Craig A. Or CLA or JJP or Chuck Ainley or Randy Staub want to share presets with me, some free, some paid, I'm in. I saw a video where Dave Pensado uses Waves One Knob series and one of his favs is Softube Saturation Knob. If fast and easy is good enough for them... 

Yep nothing wrong with taking short cuts if the outcome is the same - I've also seen Pensado recommend the use of transient designers instead of mucking about with compressor settings to achieve much the same thing....

BassDaddy
I like what you said mudgel. If Craig A. Or CLA or JJP or Chuck Ainley or Randy Staub want to share presets with me, some free, some paid, I'm in. I saw a video where Dave Pensado uses Waves One Knob series and one of his favs is Softube Saturation Knob. If fast and easy is good enough for them... 

From what I know and read about those at the top end of our business; time is money and many of these guys are on deadlines. I mean listen to Craig talk about his life, he's always on the go. He works hard and fast and has a tremendous output of work. No wonder he wanted to spend some time coming up with some cookie cutter type solutions to getting good quality consistent sounds. That's called a preset and despite what people tell you, it can be a solution instead of just a place to start. Obviously if you select a preset and it isn't the solution, you have more work to do.
It's an entirely different subject to learning about the application of fx and how a compressor etc works. I want to know that too,but give me a deadline and an easy way to tame an errant sound, I'll take a quality quick fix over hours of mangling to fully learn fx A or B.

BassDaddy
I like what you said mudgel. If Craig A. Or CLA or JJP or Chuck Ainley or Randy Staub want to share presets with me, some free, some paid, I'm in. I saw a video where Dave Pensado uses Waves One Knob series and one of his favs is Softube Saturation Knob. If fast and easy is good enough for them... 

You also have to remember that these gentlemen are "paid" endorsers....they're not just hangin' out 
and using the plugins...I'm sure, on occasions, they use them...but, for the most part, they use
probably 70 to 90% hardware...which is readily at their disposal...and plugins, while having
come a long way, are still not "There Yet"...

What they DO (and QUITE WELL) is help these companies sell plugins to the schmoes like you and me...

I'm a pro schmoe.

Because I use Waves, IK, Slate, UAD, PSP Audio, Fabfilter, Izotope, Lexicon, Valhalla, Nomad Factory, Don't Crack's VIP bundle, EZMix, Voxengo, Softube and Stilwell.
 

Time is money for the pro guy and that is true. Time may not be money for non pros but there is something to be said about keeping moving and not loosing momentum. 

I have added a few Waves plugins over the past couple of month as they went on sale.  Curiosity and mass marketing got to me a little I guess, because there are so many mixing videos on YouTube where it's all Pro Tools and Waves.  Now, in many of these tutorials you could probably substitute a Sonar bundled plugin or an additional PC Module.  I think for more experienced Sonar users that's probably the case, but I also know that a lot of more experienced users are using Waves plugins:)
 
I find the plugins I bought easy to use.  There's a comprehensive PDF Manual at the ready for every plugin just by hitting the '?' and you can read/download the manual and/or demo a plugin before you buy.  And as I mentioned, add to that the wealth of mixing tutorials on the web that feature Waves...it's a convenient and easy way to learn a technique and a plugin at the same time.