the intake pays for itself in the sense that it's rewashable and reusable for life. The small performance gain is just the icing on top, and the added growl is the cherry on the icing, and the fact that you can do deeper river crossings is the little frosted sugar flakes sprinkled on top
ive owned my qx4 for 6 years now... if i replaced the stock paper filter twice a year, it would have costed me $200 in filters by now!
so if you're in it for the long run, it's stupid NOT to get an intake, same with warn hubs