First, scanner vendors realized that if they didn't put a premium on ease of use, they weren't going to sell many scanners to people who didn't need them for pre-press or production. Next, various changes in technology improved quality and lowered prices to levels unheard of. That is certainly something you can't say about digital cameras at present. In fact, the sheet-fed scanner market is drying up as the advantages of the flatbed scanner become more apparent to virtually everyone. No, of course not.
More expensive scanners deliver much higher quality and have a larger scanning bed.
For most frequent presenters, the answer is no. The reason is that 600-dpi scans will produce image detail that is more than enough for putting photos into a PowerPoint presentation, displaying them as slides or printing in handouts. The 6200c also has both a USB and SCSI interface, and comes with HP's PrecisionScan Prosoftware to provide plenty of scanning control options. PageMill for creating Web pages. All in all, it's a pretty slick unit for those who want business-class professional scanning.