haha...i get your meaning. and touche. for the record though i'll post some observations.
a lot of the slack that the 003 gets is based on the 002 (preamps etc)
the conversion on my 003 is exponentially better than on my old Mbox. listening back to mixes that i did on the Mbox that i believed sounded pretty decent i hear many problems with them that seem to have been masked when listening on the Mbox. the 003 just has more detail both going in and going out. the preamps also are not terrible. they don't have any color, they also don't get in the way. they may not be as detailed as others but i don't feel that they detract from the sound when i do use them for things like toms and the occaisional guitar track. i think i could make an entire recording with them and it would sound fine. i do however want to strive for more than fine so i'm going for better things.
would i love to have 2 channels of apogee to go into the spidf or even an 8 channel ADAT unit? yes of course but i can't afford it right now and it's no longer the weakest link in my chain. right now i'm focusing on room treatment and doing things to make my workflow more efficient.
if you can't make a decent recording on the 003 start to finish then there is something wrong i would say.