Possibly, but I've never paid list price for ST. I place 1 or 2 annual phone calls to Retentions and I get somewhere between 50-75% off the list price for ST.
It's the same "ST hyperbole" that we've all seen at DBSTalk and to a lesser degree, here. When I read posts that refer to the "evil/monopoly" grip, etc that D* has on ST, I chuckle as I rarely read the entire story, ie, ST was open for bidding years ago and D* won the bidding process. If I recall correctly, there was little interest from the other major providers for the pkg.
As for FIOS, I have the 'net and phone svc at home (great 'net svc) and I get calls weekly to try and get me to sign up for their TV svc. I tell the Verizon CSR's the same thing every time...."As a sports fan, FIOS doesn't offer me the same sports (HD) feeds as D*." I'm referring to the overall sports programming options and not ST exclusively. I refer to the MLB, CI, and RSN's that I have available form D* that my local FIOS doesn't carry.
I haven't done a recent A/B comparison with my local FIOS sports lineup's but the last time I did, it wasn't a close race at all.
The replies that I receive are interesting from the FIOS CSR's, when I tell them this: "Uh...oh....sir.... you're right actually", or "You know, sir, I wasn't aware of this either. I see why you've stayed with your current TV provider."
They're curteous but persistant with my weekly e-mail's and phone msgs.
For those that want ST and FIOS (or cable, etc), they might consider both, sub'bing to the lowest D* pkg that will qualify them for ST access, and keeping FIOS, etc, for their main TV provider, for the "basics", etc.
