Richard:

Most of the detractors have simply had no personal experience with TKS, and
do not know how well it works. At best, their "knowledge" is based on rumor
or hearsay.

On the other hand, given an opportunity to actually fly in an airplane with
a system installed it immediately becomes apparent how useful it actually
is. It has dramatically increased my ability to fly in the icing season
(October through June), and has also has decreased my anxiety level when
flight planning during the winter.

It has any other combination of boots, hot props, alcohol props, hot
windshields, etc beat hands down. On our small airport we have a P210,
turbine Bonanza, V35 Bonanza, and my Baron all equipped with TKS and we all
remain enthusiastic about how great it works.

Unless someone has actually flown a TKS equipped plane in icing conditions
they simply are not capable of making a rational comparison.