Kind of agree with you on the fact that it's probably a bit bulky compared to other lights for EDC, but to compare it to a Nitecore for reliability/strength I wouldn't as it's a different class in quality (price reflects that) - I have had myself and read about so many Nitecore failures also I've had Armytec failures as well. The Rotary HDS might be smaller but not brighter and is $50 more for absolute bare minimum configuration and about $450+ for the works.
The other lights you mentioned (except the rotary being at only 250-325 lumens) try leaving them on in high/turbo for more than 2-4 min and they will burn you and/or step down to less than the 1000 constant lumens from the C57 that doesn't get hot at all so it will be more reliable with a higher output for longer.
A few other things are you are paying for is premium materials aluminium/copper/stainless steel/carbon fibre/titanium/sapphire, also it isn't fussy with what batteries you use - it's modular as in you can buy every part separately if you want/need to, there aren't many lights out there that you can service yourself if they go poof!
