When cooking for a group of 10+ the Ranch is just a lot of fun. Yes, it is huge and you can obviously cook a lot of food all at once. However, where it really shines is zone cooking. Having so much grill real estate allows you to cook this directly, that indirectly, some just in a warming zone, and switch it up easily. A lot of times I don't even bother moving food from one side to the other. I just grab a charcoal rake that I keep handy and spin the whole top grate with ease. The only real downside to it all is the clean up since you don't have one touch sweeps and the grease doesn't seem to drip out of the kettle as easily since the bowl is flatter.
The $1,400 retail price doesn't seem all that ridiculous really when you realize that it is a 3 foot wide rolled steel (all others are stamped steel) kettle with stainless steel grate. I paid $600 for mine if I remember right, but it was in pretty good shape and had the wider side opening grate. I would recommend it to anyone who can find it at a good price and have the space to keep it.