Hi Chris
You make some good points, particularly about the pseudo monopoly, and the lack of ease of use of PS for beginners, not to mention the price differential.
I'm not sure what functionality NX 'steps' provides - it sounds like a sophisticated undo facility. While layers offers this as well, they also give the capability to fade the effect of any particular action by reducing the opacity, group layers together so they only interact on each other, and nest layers within groups to facilitate selective masking of selections etc. I use all of these techniques when processing portraits, but also there are occasions when they can help bring out the best in other types of shot. For example my shot
Slate Fence used combinations of this and the layer masking technique described above to bring out the shaft of sunlight on the slate and mosses in the foreground to lighten the light parts without lightening the dark parts.
We probably need to get together some time to understand the capabilities and benefits of the respective software packages
