All depends on what and where you are shooting really. Fine if you're wandering round in North America with lots of open spots. Rubbish if you're hiking through the jungle with slippery slopes all over the place. I'm sure there would be plenty of top wildlife shots missed if everyone used a tripod all of the time, they are rubbish for fast action, like monkeys or other smaller animals. Tripods have their place, but a good handholding technique, fast glass and IS/VR are also very useful.
I have the Carbon version of the roadtrip for when I'm hiking. It's not the sturdiest but holds my 120-300 (3kg) fine if used properly. A lot more portable than my 190 and 055!
Funnily enough when I was in Costa Rica a tripod was vital because it was incredibly dark, ISO 6400 and F/4.0 were yielding 1/30th second exposures.
I agree there is a time and place for hand holding and for tripod work.
If you want to maximize image quality then you will be wanting to use the tripod as much as possible whenever possible and only giving up on it when absolutely necessary. If you want to minimize weight and maximize flexibility then you leave the tripod behind. Then there is the middle ground with a monopod.
I'm just as guilty as anyone for leaving my tripod behind, even more so since getting my 300mm PF which weighs a messily 750g compared to my 2.5KG of tripod and head But now I have a 3kg Sigma 150-600 Sports hand holding is really just not an option and I dont mind because having a heavy camera+lens attached to a tripod is actually a very easy comfortable way of hiking, having the lens rest against your shoulders and th tripod and a hand counter balancing.
Anyway, I think a tripod is soemthign which you can never overspend on really. It is one of the best investments you can make in camera gear, cameras come and go and even lenses get updated frequently although to loose value or become less desirable. My old 300mm f/4.0 immediately became less useful when the PF version came in to my possession. But a decent tripod and head will last 10-15 years at least. technology doesn't change here. They are pretty simple, its not like in a few years time there will be a new tripod with extra legs, better autofocus and halve the weight. Eventually a material that is slightly better than carbon fibre will come along that offer X% less vibration and y% less weight. but it will be pretty small change.
That doesn't mean that I think you need to spend 1K on a top end setup, just that it is worth consider budget, a small stretch now may mean decent savings down the line.
