Buy what you want. Do with it what you want. Its your money and your decision. After driving several of each I settled for a gtst simply because i felt it offered me better bang for buck. It is now an "out there" highly modded vehicle that can hold its own in almost any company And i derive an awful lot of pleasure from it.
As for costs, Its no less expensive to own and maintain a high output gtst than it is a gtr. Sure the gtr has a tad more hardware but as those who have been down the path know modding is not cheap and any extra cost involved is seen as small potatos when you look at the overall build expense.
There are gtr's I can best both on the track and strip and gtr's that can hand me my arse. Its all done in a good natured way with mutual respect toward each others chosen path. To date the only gtr owners who have tried the "superior" attitude are those without either the skills or the hardware to get within a bulls roar of my lowly (in their eyes) gtst. By and large the gtr boyz are a great bunch and we have a tunnafun together.
At no stage have I regretted my decision to walk the gtst path probably becuase i am an old bogan and simply love rwd style shenanigans. It is no disadvantage on the strip either, My 60 footer's are around the 1.6 so i dont think i am giving too much away in the launch department.
At the end of the day threads like this do nothing other than create division. I am sure there are more important and more entertaining issues to air on a forum than this topic.