Parakeetitis

But $20 games are hard pressed. It's expensive enough to make me think twice, not pretty enough to give me a case of parakeetitis and make me want to impulse buy. (Expensive games do get impulse bought if I trust the company or really like the theme).

These components are much harder to duplicate, and so your homebrew answer is unrealistic unless you're willing to spend lots of time cutting cards and painting little wooden blocks […]. This discussion then basically boils down to whether or not you suffer from incurable parakeetitis, which I do. I need to see all the shiny little parts, or something's missing...

Carcassonne is definitely more complex than I thought the first time I played it. I bought it on an attack of parakeetitis (mmm... pretty pieces), and thought after the first playing that the whole game was winning farms.