First, regarding the letter from Surly, if you think it was a little harsh, you need to look into the company a little more. Their company name is a fairly apt descriptor of the attitude they like to convey - everyone I have dealt with there was very helpful, friendly, and fiercely opinionated.

As for the steel arguements, I have owned three cromo 4130 frames (still own two of them), and they all ride completely differently - some good, some not so much. The grade of steel is less important than what you do with it. I am not saying that you can take low end 4130 and make a comparable bike to some of the steel exotics that are out there (I put together and tested a Dedaccai EOM road bike that was absolutely amazing), but I don't think the difference between 4130 and 631 is all it is hyped up to be.

Finally, to echo a point made by several others, even though Surlys are made at one of the biggest factories in the biz, they are very much not the same as anything else rolling off they assembly line. Having spent years looking through bike cataloges, it doesn't take much to see how different their offerings are.

I agree that they cost more, but I do think they are worth it and priced appropriately. If you want someone who looked through a factory spec cataloge and picked out some models, go for it (really, there isn't anything wrong with it if you just need a standard entry level bike). Why do you think there are so many entry level fixies (or bikes in general) that are more or less clones of each other?