There's nothing wrong with an XT hub. However, there's nothing special about them either. Cup and cone works well enough if you spend the time doing yearly maintenance on them. The advantage of the other hubs I've suggested is that you don't have to spend any time maintaining them. I've got a set of Phil Woods on my commuter bike that have 17,000 all weather miles on them and I've never done anything to them. My touring bike's Phil's have 12,000 miles on them without any kind of maintenance. I don't expect to have to do anything to them for years to come.

There's also other reasons to consider high end boutique hubs. Phil's FSC, for example, can be taken apart in the field with only a 5 mm allen wrench if you should need to replace the bearings. The freehub body and cassette can be removed without removing the cassette as well. This is a handy feature if you happen to break a spoke. There's no need to carry the tools for cassette removal. White Industries hubs can be had with a titanium freehub body which saves significant weight. Chris King hubs have a very positive pawl engagement...which is also why they buzz so horribly.

And, yes, there is an elephant in the room when it comes to the "bling" factor. The XT is a good mass produced (off-shore) hub that gets the job done in a ho-hum manner. The boutique hubs are usually made in the US and are beautiful pieces of equipment. For me, the "bling" is icing on the cake of a good product. And spending a few hundred dollars on a lovely hub set keeps me from spending thousands on something foolish...like a sports car