You think Crestron is pricey? Savant is even more money. Although I don't think that Savant is going anywhere because they have too much money.

If you can't afford Crestron/Savant/AMX then you might consider:

Prodigy (a new Crestron line of more affordable products)

HAI's OmniPro II system

Or, dare I say it, Control4.

You will always be at the mercy of a programming guru, no matter which system you install, unless you want to completely wreck the system by going into the programming yourself and making a mess. In fact, designing a system and its programming, at the end of the day, is more important than the actual make & model of the system itself. Some company can take cartons of, say, Crestron hardware, and if the system isn't designed and programmed properly it will be nothing more than a waste of time and money, and a complete headache. So, rather than choosing a certain manufacturer, you should be looking into the various installation companies that work in your area, checking their references, and looking at some of their past installations. Then choose.