The choice is fairly simple. If you want to make cheap booze quickly and with a minimum of effort and are quite happy once past the first mouthful or two, then stick to kits. If you enjoy the craft of brewing and enjoy drinking good beer then AG is where it's at. Cost is largely irrelevant because the differences need not be massive.
There's a deep sense of satisfaction and wellbeing I get from grain brewing (when it's not all going wrong
) which is probably a deep rooted instinctive thing stemming from the fact that we are engaged in a craft that's almost as old as prostitution, and which was regarded as a basic necessity of life. 
agree