Thanks all for the replies. Derek, yes you've reflected the intent of my original question well--I'm interested in see what other's value when creating joinery. The question was posed in part b/c I just sprung for the LV skew rabbet plane after looooong holding out. I have other planes that can do it's function, but am hopeful I've spent well Also, the topic seems to be one that has not gotten much traffic.
FWIW, I've a LV med shoulder plane, a Record 043 for plowing, a LV large router plane and the skew rabbet in the mail. I got the shoulder plane first and still use it in many situations for joint fitting but not really for joint making (as pointed out earlier).
The task that I'm still puzzling over and working to optimize is making dados but haven't yet done enough by hand to have settled into to knowing whether a dedicated plane(s) would be worth it.
Thanks again,
C
"You can observe a lot just by watching."
--Yogi Berra