Against my better judgement, I decided to give Epson one final shot, and pulled the trigger on a P9000. With the $1000 rebate they currently have going, it would have been a small difference between replacing the head on the 9900 which would have cost me $2,500, and buying a new printer. I did get a 3 year warranty on it this time, but I really do hope that the printheads/inks are better with the clogging issues on these newer models. They just haven't been around long enough to really know the longevity/reliability of the heads, so I'm taking a gamble.
This is my 4th large format Epson over the course of 20 years, and the last chance I'm giving them. Hoping for the best...
The head is the heart of a printer. When I decide "how much printer" I want to buy, it's not based on the cost of replacing the print head (of unknown longevity at this time) but rather on the maximum size prints I'm likely going to make.