Aren't there other lights out with the same or superior specs @ half the cost???
...Yes, but they aren't nearly as reliable. For some people, whose lives, and the lives of others, depend on their tools' reliability, it's worth the extra cost and lack of neat but unncessary features for the Surefire.
People have had trouble with Surefires, but your chances of failure with a Surefire seem to be way less likely than with just about any Chinese light. If you do have a problem with a Surefire, they fix it promptly and painlessly. My E1B tailcap had a 'sticky' button, so they mailed me a new one without any proof that I even own the light and didn't require me to send the old one back.
Also, Surefire's lumens ratings are very conservative. My 500 lumen Fury is brighter than a co-workers 800+ lumen Nitecore, for example. Either Nitecore over estimates their brightness, surefire underdoes it, or some combination of both.
Reliability > Gimmicky features and a few more lumens