Not at first, but over time you might. I've only been biking a year and a half. My bike has Acera on the front and Deore on the rear, and I notice a difference. I don't think it's worth an extra $200, but the Deore definitely shifts more smoothly even to me, a relative novice.

I may be reading it wrong, but I think the brakes themselves are the same -- it's just the controls are better as part of the Deore set. Someone else may correct me on that, though.

That will probably be more valuable than the input from us.

Quick story. My wife has recently expressed interest in getting a bike just for rail trails, and we had a list of comfort bikes for her to try (based on specs). When we went into the LBS yesterday, she rode those and liked several of them. But then she tried another one which wasn't even in the same category, and therefore wasn't one we'd even looked at online to compare. When she came in from that test ride, she had a big smile on her face. As she says, that one spoke to her. So that's the one we came home with. Nothing wrong with research, but in the end you hope to find a bike that speaks to you when you get on it. May not always happen for everyone, but when it does it makes the choice pretty easy.