If you have to spend a couple of hours upgrading your interface before you can use your new toy then you should really think about finding a better toy.
A couple of hours? Not sure.
A couple of days? (Like a standard Windows or Linux install) Yuck.
The 5 minutes it took me to flash the G Tablet with a custom Rom? Totally worth it.
Do you buy a car and install a new steering wheel, gas pedal, and in-dash system before you drive it?Do you spend an hour putting the keys in your keyboard so the layout is just right?
No, but when I sit in a car, I adjust the mirrors, play with the Nav system, connect the bluetooth. I change the various user-specific settings, setup a user profile (in my Cadillac), and check the default tire pressures. I also like to review the manual. Maybe 30-60 minutes of setup time.
A new desktop?? 60-90 minutes of setup time, by the time I've routed the cables where I need them to be, plugged everything in, and organized my desk. Also install the default set of widgets on my OS X install, setup my E-mail account, sync LastPass, download my bookmarks, and start TeamDrive syncing to my data-in-the-cloud. Not to mention install the latest versions of iWork, iLife, Office, OpenOffice, Firefox, Chrome, and Skype. Oh, and run a standard "System Update".
Perhaps that's more like 120 minutes for the Desktop, and 60 minutes for the Laptop.
For my G Tablet? Plug in the USB cable. Copy over Clockwork Mod. Auto-flash it by holding down "Power" and "Volume UP". Copy over Vegan Rom. Flash it by holding down "Power" and "Volume Up", and scrolling down to "Update.zip". Wait 1 minute while the G Tablet reboots on its own.
Then setup my Google Account. Gmail/Contacts/Calendar/Talk are automagically configured. I manually setup Skype; but Titanium Backup can be used to handle stuff like that.
Total setup time? 10-15 minutes, including all the application installs. Easily the fastest gadget to setup in my stable; including Vehicles, TVs, Receivers, Game Consoles, etc! How do I know this? I just setup flashed mine from scratch. This after I set my dad's up two weeks ago.
Sure, an out-of-box iPad, iPhone, or iPod might be slightly faster. But you don't get as many of the "Google" in the cloud services, and the $200 savings is easily worth 15 minutes of my time (I like to think that I'm worth about $800 an hour). This is hardly an arduous process involving hours of work.
For those who want to know how it is done: click here. Also, it is my understanding that ROM Manager is rolling out G Tablet support, and can be directly installed after Z4Root. Both of these can be installed directly on to the G Tablet; simply click on the APK links you'll find online.
Now, I don't know what kind of toys you use, but the average gun nut/music nut/car nut/console nut/hunting nut/camping nut/painting nut will polish/oil/wax/arrange/organize/paint/sharpen/wire/whatever their gear for 15-20 minutes. That's not an unreasonable thing to recommend to someone.