are the creative drive bays just for lazy people

ok i am being told that the x-fi gives a much better sound experience over the audigy 2 products and people tell me there are less issues.
i was wanting one of the drive bays or external boxes you get with the card but i cannot afford anything in the x-fi range except extreme music.
are those boxes and drive bays just for people who cant be arsed to get on the floor and round the back of there pc's to plug there microphons in etc. cos if thats there only use then i think i would be better of with x-fi extreme music, am i right?

Yes, the break out box adds more connections that aren't on the board itself like optical connections and such. If you don't need those connections then you're GTG with an extreme music.

The drive bay is a novelty I paid extra for once and did not get any real use out of. Most cases now-a-days have front audio jacks that can connect directly to the soundcard/onboard audio (JUAD1 connector) with out having to even use reach around cables, that's fine for me now. The only thing I used thr drive bay for is the RCA ports, once, but the use of an 1/8" to RCA adapter cable can accomplish the same thing. I never used the remote or any other ports on the bay. For an audiophile it's great, it offers lots of I/O ports, right on the front of the system that they can use with out adapters, but if you are an average user it is an expensive toy with out much use.

I recently purchased an XFi Extreme music. It is a good card, the only drawback i see is, without the drive bay, I cannot have a microphone, line in, and SPDIF out connecetd at the same time, since they share the same port.

As for purchasing the external box at a later date..... well I cannot find it for sale in the US.

Other than that it is a good card.