Developing your own photos does indeed kick ass, but I'd NEVER have time to develop the amount of pictures I take. Anything that I want to do in a darkroom I can do in Photoshop in a fraction of the time. I'm glad I know how to develop my own, though.
I'm the kind of person that believes it's all about the individual taking the picture and not the equipment. Having good gear is definitely an advantage, but I only paid $200 for my camera and I think it works pretty well for every sort of condition I've taken pictures in with it.