Oh yeah, Waves business practices are hella scandelous...
Research WUP before throwing any money their way...
It's like you don't buy their plugs, only rent them...
They make some good stuff like the SSL, V-Series, JJP & API
But the I prefer the Duende for the SSL, as it's all the way official (not an emulation)...
I prefer UA's official Neve pulg-ins to the waves V-Series... The Neve bundle won the '07TEC award for signal processing software...
Many also prefer UA's officially licensed Fairchild and Pultec plugs to those of the recently released Wave's JJP series (which again is not officially licensed)...
Now the API series is something I've though about getting, but considering the annual WUP payments Waves wants to get out of you, I'd rather get the real deal analog units (2500 stereo comp and 500 series 500 B eqs)... but that's just me...
...
But yeah, as far as external DSP processing goes... in terms of overall quality, value, diveristy and customer service: UAD> SSL Duende > Powercore > Pro Tools TDM > Liquid Mix