I also prefer AG over extract for the control it gives me over my recipe and, frankly, the quality of the product. Yes, you can brew excellent beer with extract, but you depend so much on the quality of the extract. If you get good, fresh extract, and if you do full wort boils, you cannot tell the difference between extract and AG brewing. However, those are very important "if"s. Also, if you want to start brewing your own recipes, you are limited to what you can do with the extracts you can get or blend. Blending extract sounds simple enough, and it is if you have access to excellent bulk extracts and know someone who can accurately weigh that stuff by the quarter pound.
And, don't let anyone talk you out of AG brewing by saying it costs so much to start. It does not have to. You do not have to go out and spend a bunch of money of stuff to start AG brewing. I've been brewing for 15 years, and my "system" is still two pots (5 and 10 gallons), 2 pitchers, and a 10-gallon cooler. When I went AG, I already had the 5 and 10 gallon pots (the 5 gallon from when I started and the 10 gallon from when I moved to full wort boils). All I needed was the cooler, two pitchers (for vorlaufing), and about three feet of tubing. I also splurged on a reliable probe thermometer to measure mash temperatures with the tun closed up. Every now and then, I drool over the fancy systems, and then I go brew a batch with my caveman system and enjoy it too much to change.
AG also doesn't have to take much more time, either. I hear of guys that talk about 5 or 6 hours for a single infusion batch, and I wonder what they are doing out there. For a single infusion batch, I tend to go from lighting the first fire to cleanup in about 4 hours or so, depending on how quickly my mash converts, but I rarely quit moving during a brew session. I also must admit that I get everything out and sort of ready the night before.
TL