pert:
One huge advantage of the ATmega328P is that it's available in a through hole package which means a beginner can prototype with an Arduino board and then be able to easily solder the same MCU in their finished project. Sure there are faster and cheaper ARMs, but the ATmega328P is sufficient for most Arduino applications. For a hobbyist the price difference really doesn't matter.
Not over the pic32 part I described in post #4:
The PIC32MX250F128B is also a 28 pin DIP
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=321571.msg2224799#msg2224799
which is why I said if the Arduino were starting over today it would probably pick that part over the 8 bit M328p.
For the same price as a 8 bit AVR, you get a 28pin DIP package with a much faster 32 bit processor with tons more resources including 128k of flash with 32k of ram and none of the progmem crap to deal with since const works as it is supposed to.
--- bill