This seems like a never ending argument. I have 2 personal reasons of why I would not buy an aftermarket intake; 1 if the intake requires a lot of tuning effort, why bother for such a small gain? and 2 I believe they are way overpriced for what you're getting. I'm not taking shots at any specific brand, more like at every aftermarket intake. I can see bigger gains if the engine is an all out n/a build or FI, so I'm not totally against it. Just not worth it in my book if you have minimal mods.
It is, but unless your the tuner why would tuning effort be an issue to a consumer? Everyone wants more power if they can have it, your questioning at what cost. Well re-tunes from shaun @ AED are free and $250-$300 isnt a whole hell of a lot of money when you compare it to other modifications out there.
If your going N/A or F/I of course you will see bigger gains but your also spending about 16 times more money than a simple $300 intake.