LEGO has done an excellent job of marketing and producing quality sets over the past 2-3 years, better than I ever would have though 10 years ago. I truly believe (and know) some LEGO reps used to read our forums and took a lot of our feedback to heart and really started developing sets for adults and did a great job. There are just too many great choices right now it's hard to buy them all.
Price increase or not, these current LEGO sets are must haves and people are going to buy them now and on the secondary market for years to come. It's still a great investment.