trevisthomas, I completely understand your decision
I bought into Pentax because of the Limiteds ... I bought the K20d with the kit lens and had a plan to buy some Limiteds after I get the hang of the camera
the problem was, one of the advantages of the Limiteds went away ... price
after the price increase, the Limiteds became expensive and this put a dampen on my plans ... I am a student with limited (
) funds and the Pentax Limiteds became too expensive for my taste
I ended up buying just one (the DA 70). Although its a GREAT lens (it trully is), it wasn't for me ... it was either too short or too long and the kit lens was almost always too slow so I started to use my camera less and less
finally I decided to make a leap of faith and buy a DA* 16-50 (and sell the DA 70 to fund it). It will cover a lot of my needs for a fraction of a cost of a prime setup (and I will start shooting again)
will I buy a prime in the future? yes ... at least one so I get a (jacket) pocket-able DSLR (K5) ... probably a 43 Limited
one more thing ... for me, the best lens is the one that doesn't restricts you ... primes restrict you in a way because you have to change em (depending on your needs) .. the DA*16-50 is in terms of IQ inferior to the DA 15 / 21 / 35 ... its debatable how much, but it is .. but its one lens instead of 3 and covers a bigger range and therefore much more suitable for a larger number of situations ... just look at the number of photos in PPG ... 1571 for the DA* 16-50 against 370 (21) + 578 (35) + 262 (15) by the Limiteds ... the numbers should tell you something
so, my advice would be... start with a zoom and later, if you feel comfortable about a fixed focal length, buy some Limiteds (and sell the zoom if you want)