At this point, attempting to assign any sort of cost/benefit ratio to the NRST is meaningless.
Until the ideas congeal into proposed regulations (first, a Law is passed, then the regulations get promulgated - that's the way a Law is enforced - through the framework of regulations for enforcement of the Law) ...
... it is going to be almost impossible to figure out the benefits to various classes of current taxpayers.
Without going through every single post here, I doubt that there has been very much intentional deceit, on either side. The key point to the whole NRST is the elimination of the IRS - so it is much more important to focus on that as the one overriding benefit that will positively effect every class of current taxpayer.
And because of that, it is important to make certain that the IRS IS eliminated as a part of the overall push to implement a NRST. There is a Bill in both the House and Senate to amend the Constitution to repeal the 16th (I think that's the IRS Amendment) Amendment and efforts should be focused on that, with the NRST to be part of the solution to the elimination of the IRS.
Well, you're wrong.
You will learn that there are people on here who will go to any ends of the earth to maintain the IRS. Deceit? Maybe, but it is too easy to ferret out. The real culprits are those who obviously have an agenda to see that the IRS stays as it is.