I agree with Nino's post above.  In that price range there are better playing machines IMHO than the three listed as must haves.  I still dream of owning an A list title one day but at the moment I am happy to stick with my budget < $2500 machines that keep me entertained just as well as other A list machines.  Yeah they don't have the WOW factor when you walk in the door to seasoned pinheads but to guys that only see pinball machines and not an A or B list machine, they are just as good.

Some guys love STTNG and yeah it may attract people to the hobby but it can work the other way as well.  Personally if I played that machine as a noobie and thought that is what you get for about $3500-4500 then I think I would keep walking.

Moral to the story as has been mentioned, and luckily we are blessed with a wide variety of machines, is that everyone is different.