Hmmmmm... Yes, but isn't it often the intangible qualities that purchasers of overpriced, er.., I mean Premium Equipment, will use to assuage nagging fears that they maybe overpaid?
"Bokeh" is getting tossed around here in this thread a lot. And don't forget the one you hear the Zeiss-waffe tossing around so much, which is "color." Qualities like bokeh are somewhat subjective compared to the more easily quantified things like "sharpness" or "distortion", etc., so sometimes you may tend to see exactly what you want to see when looking at bokeh or color.
The thing has 9 rounded aperture blades, not 5 flat paddles like my Nifty Fifty. And even the Fifty's bokeh does not bother me much. I don't even notice it at all unless I am shooting at twinkle lights with it stopped down. If "uninspiring bokeh" is the biggest knock against this thing, but you are not seeing sharp little pentagons or hexagons floating around on your images, maybe it's not something to lose much sleep over if the price is reasonable.
