It's certainly interesting, at the very least! I suppose the right word might be "inevitable". It's tough to escape the reality of new technology and the latest whiz bang gadgets, which seem to have a life cycle of about a month at best. Don't get me wrong, I've seen UHF/800 systems that were well designed and purpose built work quite well, but at no small cost. Not just monetarily, but almost always at some interoperability and ease-of-use expense as well.
Call me old fashioned, but there is nothing quite like a good old analog 100+ watt low band mobile with a roof mounted 60" whip antenna that can transmit point-to-point for miles without breaking a sweat. Especially when the dung hits the fan, it's nice to be able to key that mic and know someone out there can hear you clearly. The counter arguments about skip and whatnot hampering low band comms are largely moot if you employ a PL.
New technology certainly has its place, but so does decades worth of rock solid, proven technology. Unfortunately, there's absolutely no money to be made selling low band Maratracs or Micors, so we're instead forced into some absurdly short life cycle where millions have to be spent every decade or so to "upgrade" to the very latest system with all the requisite bells and whistles.
Now I'm getting off topic, but so be it lol. I will say this though, that even with Rockland's new 700 TRS just around the corner (they're out at Schaumburg this week testing the system) which will include UHF T-Band Fire Paging, the sentiment I love best is
"46.18 isn't going anywhere as long as I have a say in the matter! I don't care if I have to dumpster dive to keep that thing running!", to paraphrase a good friend of mine who indeed does have the final say in the matter!