All true. In the next couple years the question of whether to go USB, Firewire or eSATA is going to be very specific to the situation.
Personally I like Firewire for high-speed, mainly because it gives enough power to run a big hard drive and it daisy chains.
My reasons exactly. I have a bus-powered Firewire hard drive that's awfully handy to use with the laptop. No need for a second power brick, and I can use it when the laptop's running on battery.