I agree wholeheartedly with just about all of what you're saying, there.
The beauty of this discussion is that there's really several ways of looking at it. I certainly wouldn't say that, in all cases, it's better to have a bunch of good than one great . . . because it depends on just how great the great one is, among many other factors.
But at the same time, it is very true that one size will rarely fit all.
I do, however, believe wholeheartedly that the guys who are in the "I'd rather have 10 good mics than 1 great mic" camp have probably never had the chance to work with a truly great mic.
Sure, the great ones can be hit and miss just like anything else, but there are some times when a mic can bring a certain magic in the way it interacts with the tonal characteristics of the source. And it's just a really cool thing when that happens, and I think if you experience that, it can kind of change the way you look at your microphone aquisition strategy.
A lot of us have tracked stuff we're proud of, I'm sure. But how often have you listened to something over your monitors that you recorded and said: "Damn. That sounds about as good as / better than what I hear on a lot of my favorite records." ? And even it doesn't happen very often, it's worth it for the few times, I think. Sometimes it might boil down to "Would you rather have consistantly good tracks or the occasional brilliant tracks?"
Very generally speaking, of course.