From what I understand, XP-expert has "perfect render" in addition to normal render. Normal render is what you would be seeing. Perfect render takes a lot longer to render, and it would be superior for really giving a lifelike image, and gives you a lot of control over lights and coloring, image size, etc. Perfect render is overkill for little old me
I think that the normal rendering is superb for what I need to see.
I think you are correct about the splitting function, that is only in Xpert, and you are also right about the price diff.
You know, I guess we gradually get used to anything as new standards become the norm in software (and nearly everything else for that matter), but for me, moving up to Xpert is like gaining at least one extra man, in terms of the productivity jump. The up front cost, in those terms, represents what.....at most, two months wages for somebody?