Yes they did cost $ - top reasons were ease of manageability and security, updates and modular options. You could argue since the others are open source you have sooo many more options and while true it takes a lot more work on your own and if you are not very fluent in php it's a moot point.

Anyone who has been aoround these forums in a while can easily vouch as to the stability of the new vs old site (hosting boofs notwithstanding lol).