It's fascinating to hear you say that, since I've heard other people say exactly the opposite ("I really like the way the Arduino environment simplifies software development, but the hardware is an overpriced piece of fluff that I could easily make myself.")
(To my thinking, both comments emphasize the "correct" placement of Arduino. It appeals to people who COULD make their own hardware. It appeals to people who COULD write their software from the ground up in raw assembler. It appeals to people who COULD do both. And of course it appeals to people who aren't particularly interested in doing either one, but still want to achieve a result best implemented with a microcontroller...)