Well, since you brought it up... How much do you think it's going to cost to replace the battery on the cobalt WHEN it finally dies? I do about 250 dives per year, and I replace a single battery per year on the Shearwater. So that's 4 bucks. To replace the Cobalt Battery is 300. Next issue. Complex UI? What could be more complex than left button scroll, right button select? It's clear you've never dove the shearwater if it came off as complex. Or maybe you're just simple. Less Intuitive? Really? LOL. You've never touched a Predator have you.
A Predator will take you from the novice all the way to the very advanced. How long will it take to outgrow the Cobalt. Open Water Diver > Nitrox Diver > Advanced Nitrox Diver.... oh crap, now what. It sucks at deco, no gradient factors, no helium, no ccr, doesn't have unlimited gases.
Yeah, I prefer to buy once and be done with it. Buying gear as you outgrow it sucks at $1200 per pop.
Fanboys are always amusing, so I'm happy to digress with you!
Granted, the Cobalt doesn't do helium, CCR, or allow for explicit adjustment of the gradient factor. Though given that it's an air/nitrox computer, tweaking the gradient factor is not really much of an issue; and I suspect, though RonR is probably be the only one here who could confirm, the Cobalt's vague "conservatism" adjustment likely involves changing the gradient factor. But anyway, sure!, if one ever wanted to dive helium mixes or use a CCR, the Cobalt would be a terrible choice. Of course, so would a Predator, given that the X1 is available -- if the day comes that I just absolutely must use trimix or a rebreather, I can't imagine choosing the Predator over the X1. If the day ever comes that I want to have a Ti-83 style interface computer that's effectively running a less comprehensible version of V-Planner, I'll consider strapping on a Shearwater. In all seriousness, the Predator is a fine computer, though if I needed the functionality it has that the Cobalt lacks, I'd be hard pressed to justify it over the X1. It's slightly cheaper, but I don't really concern myself with cost when it comes to choosing the gear I want to use in support of my plans to return to the surface alive and un-bent.
But since I (like quite a few divers, even divers who -- horror of horrors -- don't use helium below 100') only use air for backgas, the Cobalt is an excellent choice. I know this will be shocking for such an outspoken tech expert as yourself, but backgas and two deco mixes is plenty for a lot of people. And unlike the Predator, the Cobalt lets me plan out my dives in advance -- right there on the computer. But maybe I'm just not doing "very advanced" diving. So terribly sad for me!
I'll leave off by pointing out that you said whether a user interface is complex depends on what buttons one uses to scroll through it and select the various options it presents. That's really all I needed to read before writing you off entirely. Happy diving, mate.