But you are right if you mention the price. T3D and Unity are just more expensive.
Not that much more expensive

Unity Indie $199.00

Unity Pro $1499.00

Even though the Pro version is much more expensive , the indie version is still very complete , and still includes web deployment and shaders.

what it mainly doesn't have is render to texture, post processing, video playback and realtime shadows. So , in that sense , the pro version is indeed the one you'd want for a full fledged game , but for $199 you can use the indie version until you gather up enough money for the pro. And , $1500 for such an engine is actually a steal. I mean , in the real world , what can you buy for $1500 ? A medium sized television ? A lower end PC ? Some rims ?

Torque 3d $1,000 per Developer

That's too expensive ? And for the people against their licensing. You have to make over $250k annually with your game. So , if you bought the $1000 dollar version , and you make a kick ass game that makes over $250,000 that year , then you contact them about their commercial license , which is only $3000. So , $250,000 - $3,000 = $247,000 , not that big a deal if you ask me. Specially considering you'll have to fork over around half of your entire profits to the government in taxes , LOL.

GameStudio is becoming obsolete , and that's a fact , until we see A8 , as A7 was a MASSIVE GIGANTIC disappointment.