So I've received my Loupedeck, used it for a few days and simply put, it's awesome.
I can see how this is not for everyone. I do most of my editing in Lightroom and while I don't really retouch my photos, since I pretty much hate that, I use Photoshop mainly for clearing up skin and cloning away things since I like the cloning tools better in Photoshop. Now and then I work in layers for some reason, but it's not very often but it happens. Otherwise I use Lightroom mainly for my post processing and when I get fully used to using the Loupedeck I can really see how much it will speed up my work. It has a lot of potential.
Since I have a background with music recording and mixing and I still do some stuff in my home studio now and then, I like a "hands on" approach like a mixing desk and instead of using the mouse for adjusting highlights/shadows, exposure and things like that, having dedicated knobs to turn is VERY awesome. And assigning buttons for my presets, that is awesome as well. There are 8 programmable buttons that can be used for that and I can put the presets that I'm using at the moment on them and just change them out, but to apply those this fast and easily is awesome, since as far as I know, there is no keyboard shortcuts for that except for copying and pasting settings on to photos which is not really the same.
And while there are keyboard shortcuts for many things, they are many times a combination of two or three keys, here they have their own keys and I like that. Of course there are not keys for every function in Lightroom, but for the main functions that I use, so far I think there is. For some it can be hard to justify the price since the Loupedeck is far from cheap, I totally get that, but for me it is so worth it.
But I use adjustment brushes quite a bit in Lightroom, obviously I can't do that with the Loupedeck, that's a task for a mouse or pen tablet like some thing from Wacom, as is using the curve tool.
I haven't had the Loupedeck for more than a few days, and I still have to look down to see what I'm doing sometimes, but am already starting to get used to it, and I already find it being a perfect tool for what I do.
The only negative thing I can say so far is that it is another thing taking up space on my desk that already has no room left on it. But I can live with that...