A horse can do better than a Jeep, when the terrain gets rough, you don't have access to fuel, you don't want to make too much noise,...

Horses for courses, as it were.

Yes, it's a very huge pain in the back to get it set up right and get used to it, but it was worth it. I use it (for Clojure and Python) when I can not get modern IDE.

However I checked counterclockwise after a long period of time - and there is almost nothing I miss. Eclipse is not my cup of tea (I'm IDEA user, let the Holy IDE War begin :) ), but more pleasant experience than emacs.

I use Emacs for Clojure development (and pretty much everything else) and still think there should be a project like Nightcode. I frown everytime someone recommends Emacs to a newbie interested in Clojure (and hasn't used Emacs before). There is a lot of yak shaving to get the whole thing work (and comfortable) to scare away anyone.