5-8 years ago sleds were not as light and making as much HP in general. It's the price you pay to have machines that will take you places that back in the day would not be so easy to get to.
And guys never put the miles on them we do now....or lets say, as many abusive miles. I could never hold my 2001 RMK wide open as long as my 2011 because it would have given up and got stuck, or got turned around because I came to something I couldn't dodge around....now you can hold these new ones pinned for a couple minutes, dodge your way around stuff, sidehill, whatever and it just keeps going. Not to mention you back still feels good enough after lunch that you don't have to turn down the riding.
That said, I'm all for power and reliability. Seems that Doo and Cat have a little better balance of the 2 than Pol at this time, but hey I've had 2,000 miles with lots of WOT on my 2011 Pro no reliability issues whatsoever. And I've got 2.5 years of riding a great/fun chassis while others were waiting to see what develops. AND if we choose to, there are some great options with a range of benefits and prices to make it better + more reliable......so all in all, that's pretty cool.
Relatively speaking, of course.....If I had to think about and maintain my vehicles as much as my sled, I'd light them on fire