There are worse things to blindly spend money on than Ortliebs, especially if you already have experience with a cheaper knockoff. Even if you never do much touring with them, they are useful for grocery runs, commuting, toting kid's projects to school, etc. If you are trying to be car free or just use your car less, good panniers are essentials.
There is a regular poster on here who sometimes runs one of the big Carradice saddlebags though. Can't remember who it is but I know I've seen the picture of their rig. Seems like a nice setup.