I agree that disk brakes are great for mountain bikes due to better cooling and fewer issues with mud and water. However, I think they add needless complication to road bikes. Although 350htrr has had good luck reliability- and maintenance-wise, I don't think they're typically as good as his experience indicates. I've had two recent encounters with hydraulic-disk-equipped bikes. One where a fellow rider had a brake inexplicably lock up (neither she, nor I could figure out what was wrong so she ended up calling for rescue) and the other where suddenly a fellow rider's bike was suddenly splattered with brake fluid (bad coupling or something) and he suddenly had no brakes. Two major failures that could never happen with caliper brakes. Add to that problems with short pad life, hard to eliminate screeching noises from near invisible particles getting into the pads, etc (not to mention that the stays and forks need to be much heavier to accomodate disk brakes) and my caliper brakes look pretty darned good.
As far as high pressure salepeople are concerned, "run away!" Try to find a non-corporate bike shop. Stay away from the Trek, Giant and Specialized dealers if you can and try to find a shop that has been in business for a long time with older, experienced salespeople.