I was gearing up to get a 'strobist' set about a year ago, the one from Midwest audio. Couple of umbrellas, those cheap crappy manual flashes and a minimal PW setup. Guess what? It cost out to over $1k. Seemed like a lot for a, well, crummy manual flash setup. There were rumors of a Canon RF system so I waited, and I'm glad I did!
Now I've got three RF flashes, with these beautiful gel head attachments (no velcro), and a tiny low profile master unit. The whole setup cost more than the Strobist set, but it includes three flashes instead of two, is fully supported by my camera (ETTL, on Camera menus, Gel whitepoint communication, etc), and is smaller and way more trim than the Strobist set. Plus the flashes are way more capable.
Seriously glad I waited! I love this flash kit.