"I think one of the things about the hammock that makes it a success for someone is how you approach it - trying it one or two times and giving up vs. recognizing possibilities and altering the hang or the insulation. People who don't like or tolerate the fiddle factor give up immediately."

Definitely agree on that. After quite a number of nights in the hammock I was still tweaking things like "best way to tension it" and trying to get a poncho that would double as an adequate tarp (my Golite is marginally adequate so long as there's not much wind-blown rain ...).

The killer for me was just not being able to get weight neutral. I recently bought a bug bivy that I've not even had a chance to use yet. Combining that with a poncho/tarp will make it even harder for a hammock to compete on a weight basis (at least my existing hammock, but I suspect ...). To be reliably warm enough where I hike (I live in WA state), my equivalent Hennessy system is more than a pound heavier than even my tarptent setup.

I think the really best way for someone to decide if hammock camping is for them is to have a friend with a (tent replacement type of) hammock and borrow that a couple times, work through enough of the learning curve to decide if it's the right approach. But at least the inexpensive test hammock could help sort out some issues. Analytical types might want to carefully add up the ounces/grams of the *total* set of things they'll carry to stay warm enough in a hammock and compare that on an apples to apples basis with what currently works for them on the ground.