Taking Momotaro as a sort of baseline for high-end but not Omakase-only sushi in Chicago, akami is $7 ($14), chutoro is $11 ($22) and otoro $13 ($26). The otoro will melt, but the chutoro will have the same texture as the sake and the akami will be leaner and have more texture; all 3 are maguro, and all 3 are more expensive than sake. :)

I prefer sake to akami and chutoro; it is hard to beat otoro.

I can see how sake is a gateway fish! But the implication seems to be that instead of eating salmon, for the real deal we should be eating bluefin. That seems dumb; both salmon and bluefin are pretty boring, they all occupy sort of the same place in Japanese cooking as sesame chicken does in American Chinese food. Everything else is better!