[Goat Mick]

For me the main thing is the wear factor. I can totally destroy a 1.5 Primetone in one or two gigs but a Vespel pick won't show any wear at all a year later. Another thing is smoothness and speed on the strings. The majority of the boutique picks on the market are made from industrial polymers that are designed for high temperature / high performance bearing applications so they are also self-lubricating. If you are trying to pick fast runs or even do fast strumming the lubrication factor makes them glide across the strings much faster and with less effort. These factors speed things up quite a bit. And really buying a $35 pick isn't expensive if it means you don't have to keep buying new picks every month or so. But like everything else, some folks will love them and others will say it's all smoke and mirrors.