Dave,

True. There is no "alert" per se, but it does give an indication as to
the nearest aircraft around me


Let's see: It's giving you a visual indication. While checking whether
that comes on, it will keep you from looking outside where the traffic
is - both traffic with an active transponder and that without one. Seems
to me that the net result is a loss of total time spent scanning for
traffic - for all of 200 bucks.

And yes, units with an aural warning are different in that very respect.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)