I had many of the same questions and haven't bothered to go to the show at
the Big E before, but this year I decided to take a seminar from Frank
Klausz (it's a "woodworking essentials" class, so I'm mainly going to get a
chance to listen to a master in person before I don't have the opportunity)
and plan to give it a once over. I'm not getting my expectations too high
(for the show, not the seminar), so I'll probably be reasonably happy.
We'll see.