I while ago I purchased the Zeiss reviews from the diglloyd website, and the Zeiss Makro lens definitely came out much better than the 1.4. You also seem to see a lot of people selling 1.4s on Ebay, but less of the other Zeiss ZE lenses.
I agonised for some time over which Zeiss lens to get, but in the end I went for the 35 f/2 over the 50 Makro. For one thing it is cheaper than the 50 Makro. For general street photography on a full frame SLR I think this is a better option for me. Of course this would be a 56mm lens on a crop body. It has the great special look that nearly all the Zeiss ZE lenses have, and the combination of manual focus and wide apertures has changed the type of pictures I take. The Zeiss lenses have completely reinvigorated my photography, so I would definitely recommend them.
For product photography the 90 TS-E lens is a much better option. It is very sharp and has the benefit of tilt for increasing depth of field.