You and I have never met either, but you seem happy to make judgements about me.
Yes, my judgments are based over a 2 year time period and on the available information, opinion and comments that you post on not just this forum but others.
My opinion is that you present a very misinformed argument on this subject. Most, if not all of your points are either exaggerated, disproportionate and false.
This in particular gave me considerable concern, a concern that's not too easy to forget or disregard.
You've got it very wrong.
Saying that I'm out of my depth with hotshoe flashes is ridiculous, I don't pretend to know anything at all about the Canon etc varieties but I do seem to be able to use my Nikon ones
Sigh.
You very may well understand the technical mechanics of a speedlight Garry but what I'm addressing is that you fail to appreciate the merits in the method/approach to using them. You
are out of touch and evidently so.
I have just 2 reservations about the Strobist approach to lighting - but they are just reservations and I feely admit that there are plenty of good things about it too.
1. The cost. It's actually MUCH cheaper to buy studio flash than dedicated hotshoe flash and all the bits that are needed to go with them. I don't have a problem with the cost but I think that a lot of people kind of get sucked into spending a lot of money, in dribs and drabs, not realising when they start out how much it is going to cost them for a handful or more of SB-900s.
Here's your problem, you vastly exaggerate and constantly present the disproportionate rather than present an informed and factual account.
Why must they always be the most expensive speedlights that you choose to use as an example? An SB 900 is one of the most advanced and expensive flashes on the market? Why pick that?
Do I need the very best studio flash available to start out with lighting too?
Fact is, you can pick up a more than capable, reliable, pc sync, photo cell enabled, hotshoe flash for much, much less than the price of a studio flash.
If you had real world knowledge with what exactly is available these days, you would recognise that your above points are flawed in every way.
2. The limitations in terms of light shaping tools. I know that there is more choice available now, but it's still very difficult to do anything creative in terms of shaping and controlling the light - with studio flash the opposite is true. As a result, I beleive that a lot of people just use hotshoe flashes with nothing more than umbrellas or softboxes, believing that that is all there is to lighting. That's a shame, because it stops them learning what CAN be done.
Umbrella's and softboxes are effective and cheap, this is why most folk use them not because their somehow deluded into thinking thats all that there is.
Yep, the modifiers are different, you can't go stuffing a 2 metre octa on a speedlight but we use speedlights for portability not power, for convenience not large diffusers, why I have to spell this out is beyond me :shrug:
What about the restrictions we face when choosing to light a scene? Budget, time, available space, convenience, unobtrusiveness, safety?
How does your train of thought cater for these eventualities? Buy a Safari pack? Rent some profoto? Give up and pack it in?
This is where Hobby's school of thought fills in the potholes that studio flash, ie flashes that require AC mains sources or expensive batteries leaves behind.
If we were to follow your train of thought only, we'd simply be buggered.
There are always
compromises when either lighting a scene on commission/assignment and lighting a scene for pleasure. You have an idea how to tackle the circumstance but this may change for a variety of reasons.
As photographers, sometimes the use of higher power unit luxuries are simply unavailable, unaffordable or inconvenient for whatever reason and compromises must be drawn.
Example here:
There are times where the speedlight is mightier than the studio flash and there are times that a little flash is simply not going to cut it.
Here's some key points that you fail to recognise in your arguments.
The cost of a starter, twin speedlight set can be lower or the roughly the same in comparison to a starter studio kit.
Speedlights are AA battery operated and go anywhere without AC power where as a studio head is limited to mains power supply or a very expensive higher capacity battery pack.
Speedlight set ups, though far lower in power output, are much more portable, lighter and compact, you can attach a speedlight in places where you can't stick a studio head.
You can gel a speedlight much more effectively than a studio head, allowing for much more creative opportunities in terms of white balance and colour correction/manipulation.
Despite the ineffectiveness of larger modifiers (mods over 80cm to a meter), there are an array of effective light shaping tools available from flags/cutters/gobo's, snoots, grids, beauty dishes, reflectors etc.
Accept the limitations and one can easily shape the light creatively and successfully.
You can carry a horde of speedlights in a single backpack, on a single person. This is simply not possible with AC heads.
There are pro's and con's to both and you simply won't acknowledge them.
I do notice that you've dropped the 'complicated and irregular triggering systems' point as it's evident that all triggering systems are identical between both systems - Cables, optical slaves and radio triggering.
I admit that I'm not too keen on the Strobist site as such (I suppose that sounds a bit like saying that I'm not too keen on David Hobby but it really isn't the same thing) because
a. It could be mistaken for a product placement site, selling PW, DVDs, what have you..
Really? You honestly raise this a point?
It's free for crying out loud! The ads are where he makes his money,
similar to the way you do advertising and promoting Lencarta here! 
BTW, How many times have you been 'mistaken' for the master peddler of Lencarta here on TP exactly? IIRC, you resent that notion yet use it as an argument against here?
b. Because it used to claim that hotshoe flashes can do everything that studio flashes can do, and that there is no need for anything except hotshoe flashes. That statement seems to have quietly disappeared, and it needed to disappear because saying that studio flashes are irrelevant is just as stupid as saying that hotshoe flashes are irrelevant.
And the cherry atop the pie. Again, I'm astonished that your still using that in an argument despite numerous attempts at pointing out that you've been misinformed.
Simply put, the site has done no such thing, does no such thing and will never, do such a thing.
Hot shoe flashes are not a replacement, Hobby suggests that they are an alternative and we as photographers choose which system to use when assessing the circumstances.
Now do yourself a favour, give yerself a slap, shake it off and stop this immature and utterly uneducated sniping at something you do not understand, appreciate or comprehend.
I swear by his offerings, recommending them to anyone interested in lighting with speedlights and the off camera practise.
